Darkness Becomes Us
by Argonaut101
Summary: Set after The Heroes of Olympus. When a boy named Jason, and his friend Tyler, show up to Camp Half-Blood, things go  wrong. Will Jason and his new friends be able to save the world, or will it be crushed in eternal darkness? Rated T for some violence.
1. Intro To My Life

Hello, my name is Jason Nightengale. I grew up in the sub-district of New York City nowadays called Manhattan. I had a troubled childhood, to say the least. I traveled _a lot _between schools, never completing a full year at one school. I was supposed to be in grade 12, but after the... Accident, I was taken out of school for my own safety. But that is a story for later on. I grew up in an apartment on 31st street in Manhattan, New York. I was the oldest of my family, at 17, turning 18 on Halloween. I am the only son, with a little sister, Ashley. She is going to be 13 this August.

This all started at my 7th school in 6 years. I had trouble co-operating with other children, to say the least. I have ADHD, so I have trouble sitting still, and I have a tendency to blurt out the answers, when I know them. That often gets me in trouble with the teachers at most of my schools. Also, my temper isn't envied, and I have a tendency to start fights when people insult my family or my friends, which I don't have many of , so I have a tendency to be over-protective of the ones I do have.

I guess I am sort of a handsome kid. I am tall, currently at 6'5, with raven black hair, piercing hazel eyes, and a stern set jaw bone. I am tall and muscular, with 165 pounds behind me. I participate in many sports, since I have trouble with sitting still during intellectual processes, even though I have an IQ of 152.

But anyways, back to what happened. I was in the middle of a school field trip, I know, weird, to be having a grade 12 field trip. But anyways, I was at the Manhattan Museum of History. I was having an okay time, since it was during our history class, my favourite subject, besides maybe Physics. My teacher absolutely killed the fun of History though. His name was Mr. Poplar. No, not _popular, _Poplar, like the tree. He always acted like all the stuff he taught us was real, and he was there. He was a stern set man with broad shoulders, with greying hair, that also translated to his poorly grown moustache. He was a relatively ugly man, and had to walk with a cane, but not as bad as my Math teacher, Mr. Banner, who was our other chaperone. But, to say the absolute least, Mr. Banner was BUTT-UGLY. I'm serious. It looks like he fell out of the ugly tree, hit every branch, and then it fell on top of him with a loud _thump._

Anyways, I was just listening to Mr. Poplar, who was currently talking about Greek Mythology, my favourite area, and he asked me, "Can you tell me what this painting is of, Mr. Nightengale?"

I studied the painting closely, and tried to discern it, then all of a sudden, _light bulb._

"Isn't that Hercules wrestling the giant, Antae us. was it?" I asked.

"Very good, Jason." Mr. Poplar said.

"Yes," Mr. Banner said, "Very good, Mr. Nightengale. Very good."

"That was weird" I said.

"What?" my best friend, Tyler, said.

"What Mr. Banner said. Like, what he sounded like. It was almost... _Inhuman."_

Unfortunately, I had no idea how right I was.

"That's crazy dude, you freaking headcase." Tyler said.

How would I describe Tyler, hmm? I don't know. He's tall, around 6'2, with golden blond hair, stormy blue eyes, and broad shoulders. Not to mention his build. He wasn't as muscular as I was, but he was on the school's swimming team, so he had a lean build, muscular, but not buff. He's been my best friend ever since I started at Yancy Academy. Tyler was also excellent at archery. He was also on the city's archery team, and he always hit a bullseye, no matter what. He has over 10 gold medals in archery, which is quite impressive. He's the best junior archer in the country.

All of a sudden, I felt a stub on my left foot, I tripped, and fell on my face.

"Ow..." I managed, cause it did hurt. A lot.

"You okay man?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, I think so..." I looked back to see what I had tripped on, and turns out, I tripped over a vase of Hades, without breaking it. _Awesome_, I thought.

"You must be more careful, Mr. Nightengale, those are very old and even more priceless." Mr. Poplar said.

"Thanks for the heads up, sir." I said.

"Keep moving. On to Egypt."

As I started to walk, someone grabbed my arm. I turned around to see who it was, and of course, it was Mr. Butt-Ugly himself, Mr. Banner.

Can I speak with you for a moment, Mr. Nightengale?" Mr. Banner asked.

"Um, sure, Mr. Banner." I said, as we walked into the deeper part of the exhibit.

" Now, Jason, tell me this..." Mr Banner said as we were out of earshot of the group.

"Um... Okay." I had a bad feeling about this.

"In what manner would you like to _die?" _And then he lunged.


	2. Crazy Satyrs & Exploding Giants

**Chapter 2: Crazy Satyrs And Exploding Giants**

I did the first thing that came to mind. I screamed like a little girl. Manly, eh?

I tried to run from Mr. Banner, but he moved too fast, blocking my exit.

"Can't have you running off, now can we?" He asked me. Yeah, he definitely sounded inhuman.

All of a sudden, Mr. Banner wasn't Mr. Banner anymore. He grew to be taller than me, and then some. He had to be at least 7.5 feet tall now. And, believe it or not, he was even uglier than before.

"Die, demigod!" He swiped at me, but I ducked right before he could swipe my head off.

"Demigod? I'm no demigod!" I was panicking now. "What are you?"

Mr. Banner, or whatever he was, roared with laughter. At least, I thought it was laughter. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard through a bullhorn.

"I am a Laistrygonian Giant! The strongest of all creatures!" He roared. He actually almost looked proud, if he wasn't so ugly.

How would I describe a Hyperborean Giant? Well, Mr. Banner, or whatever, had to be at least 8 feet tall now, buffer than a rhino, with greasy hair, too far spaced apart eyes, greasy all-around, and teeth that would give all the dentists in the world a heart attack.

All of a sudden, the doors burst open, with Mr. Poplar wielding a sword. _A frickin' sword!_ I thought, astonished.

"Back demon!" Mr. Poplar yelled, which was actually quite intimidating while he's holding 3 feet of sheer killing power.

"Brave, stupid Satyr, you can never defeat me!" The giant said plainly.

"Wait, Satyr, as in half man half goat Satyr?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Thank you from the Peanut Gallery!" Mr. Poplar said sarcastically. "I may not be able to defeat you, but Jason can."

"I can?" I asked, completely stupefied, and I'll admit, a little bit scared.

"Of course you can kid! Now fight as if all our lives depended on it! Which it does! Here! Use this!" He said as he tossed me the sword.

This may sound crazy, but the sword just felt right in my hand.

"Yeah, I can." I said, as I tucked rolled and stabbed and Mr. Banner went _poof. _Literally. It looked like gold dust just hit a ceiling fan.

"That was... was... awesome." and I collapsed on the spot.

I could hear the students freaking out along with Mr. Poplar trying to calm them down, then, I couldn't, and I blacked out.


	3. Realization

**Chapter 3: Realization**

When I woke up, I was in the school nurse's office, which was strange. Wasn't I just back at the museum?

"I just had the craziest dream..." I said, a little dazed.

"It wasn't a dream, woodchip." Mr. Poplar said.

"Woodchip?" I asked, a little weirded out.

"Never mind."

"So the giant?"

"Real" Mr. Poplar said matter-of-factly.

"And the sword?" I asked, dazed.

"All real, kid."

"Oh my god" I said, freaking out now.

"In your case, oh my _gods."_

Gods? What the heck was he talking about? I was really starting to panic now.

"What are you talking about _gods?"_

"You're a demigod kid, just like the giant said."

"That's crazy. I don't believe it. I can't believe it."

"Face it kid. All of the Greek gods are real. Alive and well to this day."

"No! Can't be! That's impossible."

"Quite possible actually kid."

"No... Can't be. It can't..."

I thought i was gonna break down right then and there, in front of everyone. But i had to stay strong. People looked up to me.

I didn't realize then that that would not matter. Not anymore.

"You're crazy" I said, really getting freaked out now.

"A little bit, maybe," Mr. Poplar said, indicating a small amount with his two fingers. "But not with this. I'm serious. We need to get you to camp, along with Tyler."

"Tyler?" I asked, dumbfounded. "He's a... whatchamacallit too?"

"A demigod. Not a whatchamacallit. But yeah, he is too."

"Crazy." I said.

"At the moment, yeah, it will appear that way. But we have to go, they know where and who you are now." He said, with complete seriousness.

"Who?" I asked.

"Monsters, gods, etcetera. You get the picture."

"Actually I don't, but okay," I said. No use arguing with a goat. "We have to find Tyler."

"Yeah, shouldn't be hard." He said with a smirk.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Look in front of you." He said, with the same stupid smirk.

I did as i was told, and he was swapping spit with... Oh no. His girlfriend of one year last week, Lynn.

"Mr. Poplar, we can't do this. We can't take him away from Lynn." I said, depressed that I forgot.

"She's coming with us, she came with me to this school to help recruit you two." He said. "She's a daughter of Iris."

"Iris, as in goddess of rainbows?" I asked.

"Yeah, and messages, and mist." He said. "Lynn! Time to go girly!"

She was so surprised by the old goat popping up she jumped and landed straight on her butt. I helped her up and asked "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks." She said with gratitude.

Lynn Iperus, school head cheerleader, and apparent daughter of Iris. She had striking green and blue eyes, yes they were different colors. She was pretty, about 5'8, long brown hair, and an excellent physique. Tyler will probably hit me for saying that, but she did. She was also nice to _absolutely everyone. _And everyone liked her too.

Her and Tyler started dating at the beginning of the school year, when we all got here. For some reason, he always has some kind of charm over the girls, it's actually really weird.

"Get packed woodchips, we're leaving." Mr. Poplar said.

"To go where?" Tyler asked indignantly.

"Camp" Mr. Poplar said, matter-of-factly.

"Aren't we too old for camp? Like, really. I haven't been to camp in years." Tyler asked, with a tone of stubbornness.

"No one is ever too old for camp!" Mr. Poplar said with such enthusiasm I thought that he would give a life coach a run for his money. "We have everything! Rock-climbing, archery, sword fighting. The list goes on!"

"Archery?" Tyler asked with an amount of enthusiasm that rivalled Mr. Poplar. Archery was Tyler's strong suit. He loved it.

I also liked the sword fighting idea. I was on the school fencing team, and i was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

"Come on boys, and girl, no time to waste! We better get gone before more monsters find us."

Now it was Tyler's turn to pass out. Awesome. Just awesome.


	4. Camp

**Chapter 4: Camp**

Let me tell you something about carrying people. I wouldn't recommend it. Seriously. Why? Cause most people aren't LIGHT! Tyler was quite heavy actually. He didn't weigh much less than me, at 150 pounds.

Carrying 150 pounds of dead weight with a vertically challenged satyr to a car that doesn't look like it can make it out of the parking lot, definitely is NOT fun and NOT on my bucket list, thank you very much.

Anyways, we managed to get Tyler into the car, and surprisingly, it ran fairly smoothly. That is an exception to whenever you hit a bump, which was bad, since the car had NO suspension whatsoever. I must have hit my head on the ceiling of the Hybrid at least 20 times.

Yeah, big surprise. A satyr driving a Hybrid. NOT! This satyr alone must have been the world's biggest tree-hugger, since he wouldn't go over 30 mph so he could conserve gas.

"I thought we were in a hurry!" I yelled, maybe with a little bit more aggression than required. "Sorry, I didn't mean for it to come off that harsh."

"Don't worry about it kid, just focus on waking up Blondie. I will drive." Mr. Poplar said.

"Right," I said. I knew exactly how to wake him up. "TYLER! WAKE UP! YOU ARE GONNA MISS ARCHERY PRACTICE!"

Maybe I yelled a little too loud, since Mr. Poplar got surprised and swerved all over the road.

"Sorry Mr. P." I said, truly sorry.

"Don't worry about it. Just tone it down a little next time." Mr. Poplar said, maybe a little mad, or a little shaken.

"I'm awake! Can't miss... Wait, what?" Tyler said, a little bedraggled.

"Remember Tyler?" Lynn asked. "Camp?"

"Right, right." Tyler said, obviously confused.

"Here we are!" Mr. Poplar said as he slammed on the brakes, full force, and i hit my head on the dash, luckily, I wasn't knocked out.

"OW!" I said, sort of mad.

"Sorry kid, I had to, I almost missed..." He didn't get a chance to finish that sentence. A gigantic _golden _bull smashed into the side of the car, sending it rolling.

"Zeus, that hurt." I said, holding my neck. But then i realized i was the only one conscious in the car, and why did i say _Zeus? _A thing to contemplate for another time, I had to protect my friends.

I got out of the shattered window, and looked over the car to the golden bull. It had pure hatred in its expression, if it could have one.

"Bring it, beefer!" I said, sounding more confident than i was.

He didn't like that. He charged me, willing to go straight through the car. I wasn't gonna let this over grown pork chop hurt my friends. With an amount of strength I didn't know I had, I leaped over the car, on to the bull's head, driving it into the ground, and I jumped off.

"Wow." I said, not knowing what or how I just did that.

I turned around and faced it, getting mad now. It charged me, and i felt a power surge through me I never knew I had. I raised my fist and punched it as hard as i could, straight in the nose. I never knew how hard my hardest punch actually was. I imploded the bull's head in on itself. It fell down, and didn't move. All of a sudden it burst into gold dust.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and on instinct i turned around and punched him as hard as I could in the chin.

I heard a sickening _pop _and saw the person go sailing over the hill.

_Oops, _I thought. _Maybe I overdid it._

"Nice right hook, I'm Annabeth, by the way." 'Annabeth' said.

"Jason, Jason Nightengale." I said. "Nice to meet you Annabeth, daughter of..."

"Athena." She said.

"Nice. I don't know my godly parent. Not yet, at least." I said, a little saddened.

"Don't worry about it, you'll be claimed soon enough, Jason."

The guy i decked was walking over the hill, holding his jaw. "Nice punch, just don't aim it at me next time." It looked like it hurt to talk.

"Here, i got this. It's just dislocated." I said. I grabbed his jaw with both hands, and reefed on it. I eventually heard it _pop _back into place.

"OW! GODS!" The man said. He had to be around my age. Maybe a little older. But he looked regal. He was tall, only about an inch shorter than me. He had black hair like mine, but his eyes were a deep sea green.

"Hi, sorry about the jaw, I'm Jason Nightengale." I said, trying to make amends.

"It's okay. I'm Percy Jackson. Son of Poseidon."

"Nice to meet you, Percy." I said.

"You want to help me with this?" Annabeth asked.

I looked over and realized my friends were still in the car. "Oh no! I completely forgot." I said. Lynn was awake, but she was in no shape to move. All of a sudden I had an idea.

"Lynn, hold on to something. Don't ask, just do it." I said, not sure this would work.

I went over to the car, put my hands on the chassis, and lifted. It was hard, but I flipped the car onto its wheels. Everyone was stupefied.

"How are you so strong?" Percy asked, open-mouthed.

"I don't know. It doesn't matter at the moment. Help me get them out." I said, desperately.

"Right," Percy said, and pulled out a pen.

"A pen? Seriously?" I asked, a little irritated.

"Just watch." Percy uncapped the pen, and it turned into a 3 foot sword.

"Wow," I said, amazed.

Percy cut through the car's window like a hot knife through butter. He pulled them all out, and I noticed something weird. Tyler had a orb over his head, it had a bow and arrow in a sun.

"What's his name?" Percy asked.

"Tyler, Tyler Hardy." I said, wondering what was going on.

"Tyler Hardy, Son of Apollo." Annabeth said, smiling.

All of a sudden he woke up with a white light coming out of his eyes. Then they were back to normal, a deep, stormy blue. "What happened?" Tyler asked.

"You were claimed by your godly parent. We know who your Dad is."

"Who is he?" Tyler asked, earnestly. He always wanted to meet his Dad.

"Apollo, god of the sun, archery, medicine, music, doctors, and the arts." Percy said.

"Impressive." I said. "Apollo was declared the most handsome god, according to myth. He also had an irresistible charm, which explains your charm."

"I guess. Can I meet him?" Tyler asked, more sounding like a child now. I guess I can't blame him. We never knew our dads. Real dads I mean. After Apollo left Tyler's mother, she went insane, started doing drugs, and she turned into an alcoholic. My mom was luckier, she completed her teaching degree while she was pregnant with me, and found a nice guy. They got married when i was 3.

"My mom! What about her?" I said, just realizing it.

"The gods have it covered. Don't worry." Percy said, with a smirk.

"Okay." I said, not wanting to argue. _Life is gonna be different from now on..._ I thought.

"When will I be claimed?" I asked, earnestly.

"Hard to say, by tonight's campfire probably." Mr. Poplar said from behind me.

"You're awake!" I said, enthusiastically.

"Takes more than an old cow to kill this goat!" He said, and puffed out his chest.

I couldn't help but laugh. He looked ridiculous. His moustache was singed, his hair was messy and flattened, so he was showing his horns over two inches above his unruly hair.

"What you laughing at, punk?" He said, offended.

"Sorry Mr. P. You just look ridiculous." I said, cracking up.

"You do Silenias." Percy said, smiling.

"Ha-ha. Very funny." Silenias said.

"I never knew your name was Silenias, Mr Poplar." Tyler said, holding on to Lynn's waist. _Cute couple... _I thought, sort of down-hearted. I had never had a girlfriend before. Lynn is Tyler's third.

"Cheer up man. Let's get to camp." Tyler said, trying to lift my spirits.

"Alright Ty. Let's go." I said, and entered camp. _Here we go... _I thought.


	5. Claimed

**Chapter 5: Claimed**

As we entered camp, i realized two things, a) I felt at home. And b) This place is huge! They had around 30 cabins in total.

"Aren't there 12 Olympians in total?" I asked Percy.

"Technically, yes. But after the second Titanomachy, we built one for each god and goddess." Percy said plainly.

"Oh." I said. (Excellent verbal skills, I know.)

"Hi, I'm Will Solace, lead counsellor for the Apollo cabin." Will said as he walked up to us.

"Hey, I'm Jason, this is Tyler." I said. "Nice to meet you Will."

"Hey. I'll get Tyler here his schedule."

Tyler noticed a group of around 20 girls at the archery range. "Who are they?" Tyler asked.

"Them? The Hunters of Artemis." Will said.

"I want to try something." Tyler said as he grabbed Will's bow and an arrow.

He shot the arrow just skimming a hunter, and split her arrow in half. "Who DARES?" The Hunter asked.

"I dare." Tyler said, rather ignorantly.

"Who do you think you are?" She asked, rather pissed off now.

"Tyler Hardy, Son of Apollo." He said indignantly.

"I'll kill you!" She yelled. "No one disrespects me!" She was glowing with a silver light now.

"Phoebe, settle down." Will said, but I could tell he was scared.

"Not this time Will. Apollo campers disrespect us for the last time!" She raged.

She lunged at Tyler. I tried to grab her, but I was too slow, but Tyler wasn't. She punched at him, and he grabbed her fist, threw it down, and did a back-flip, and kicked her in the chin. She was out cold.

"Tyler?" Will asked, stupefied.

"What?" He said.

"You are so dead this afternoon."

"What's going on this afternoon?" I asked, curious.

"Full contact capture the flag. All weapons are allowed." He answered.

"Uh oh." Tyler said, genuinely scared now

"Yeah. It's the some of the cabins versus the Hunters and the remaining cabins."

"I'm screwed." He said.

"I feel for you bro." I said, a bad consolation, but all I could manage.

"Thanks Jason" He said. "That means..." He all of a sudden went wide eyed directly above my head.

"Tyler?" I asked.

"Jason, look at the orb above your head."

I ran to the lake as fast as I could. I looked into the lake and was shocked at what I saw. I had a purplish black orb above my head with a helmet with three spikes on it inside it. I scanned all of the symbols of power I knew. And I realized something that shocked me. I am Jason Nightengale, Son of Hades.


	6. Nico

**Chapter 6: Nico**

"NO!" I heard a boy yell.

I turned around to find a boy, about 15, I'm guessing. And he looked pissed. "How could you dad?" How could you?" The boy was screaming now.

"Nico, calm down." Percy said, looking absolutely terrified.

"Jason, you have to fight him. You are the only one that can match his power." Percy said, looking worried.

"Okay, I need a weapon don't I?" I asked.

Then, all of a sudden, gauntlets appeared on my wrists, the one on my left had a button, and another with a hilt of a swordattached to the wrist. The sword came out, but it was just the hilt. On each gauntlet, there was a symbol of Omega. (Ω) Then i realized that on the hand-guard, there was a button in the middle, I pressed it and it became a 3 foot _Xiphos ,_or leaf-shaped blade.

"Never mind." I said. _Awesome..._ I thought. _Thanks Dad._

"That's so UNFAIR! You never did that for me Dad!" Nico was mad, but i could sense he was more sad. Dad treated him unfairly I sensed.

"You don't have to do this Nico." I said, trying to convince myself and him.

"It's not fair!" Nico yelled. As he said that the undead rose from the ground, armed with knives to machine guns.

I had no idea if this would work, but i took a deep breath and yelled at the top of my lungs "ENOUGH!" and all the undead disintegrated to dust.

"No... No... NO!" Nico screamed and i flew backwards into the lake.

"Nico, stop this, i don't want to hurt you" I said.

"Hahahaha! You can't beat me, you novice." Nico looked evil now.

I felt a power surge within me, making me stronger. I could feel my hair standing on end, and all of a sudden the power exploded, and i parted the entire lake around me. "You can't beat me Nico." I said, but i didn't sound like myself, i sounded older, more experienced and powerful.

"It can't be. Dad told me about this." Nico looked scared now. I didn't want to hurt him.

"What is it Nico?" Percy asked, keeping his eyes trained on me.

"The Dark Core. The most powerful force in history if handled correctly. If not, he'll burn up from the raw power."

I let the power subside. "You can't understand what you know nothing about." I said.

Then, all of a sudden, Nico's eyes glowed red. He shuddered and released what looked like a spirit. The spirit had dark black hair, pale skin, and red eyes. Then i saw a blinding flash of light and there stood Hades himself.


	7. Tartarus

**Chapter 7: Tartarus**

"Tartarus." My father said, with complete seriousness. Wait, Tartarus is a real person, god, whatever? I always thought it was just the prison in the underworld. Obviously not.

"Hades." Tartarus said, and he sounded like pure evil.

"Leave now."

"Why should I? I like it here."

"I am your master as long as i am king of the underworld. Now leave."

"You won't be for long. Farewell Hades." And Tartarus was gone.

"Dad?" I asked, not believing my eyes.

"Yes son. It's me Jason. It'll be okay" Hades said. I didn't expect god of the underworld to be so sympathetic.

I probably looked really embarrassing, but i started to cry.

"It's okay son. We'll talk in my palace later. I just need to talk to Chiron."

How would I describe my father? He was tall, about my height. He had pale skin, with long flowing black hair that went to his shoulders and a goatee that wrapped around his mouth. He was tall and lean, but not scrawny. He had my eyes and my facial features, but he looked like he had been through many hardships as well, which was true in a sense. He got the short end of the stick when drawing lots. But he does have a beautiful wife and he is the richest god, so it's not so bad.

My dad came back with Chiron, a man with the body of a man, but the legs of a white stallion. He had a bushy but well maintained beard and shoulder length greying hair, which also applied to his beard.

"Let's go son." My Dad said soothingly. I nodded and in a flash we were in the throne room of the underworld.

"I'm sorry Dad. I never meant to fight Nico..."

"It's okay son. It wasn't Nico you were fighting. It was Tartarus."

"I know. But I could sense that what he was saying was Nico's feelings brought to the surface. That is how Nico feels Dad."

"I will talk with him later. But for now you need to calm down."

I nodded. He was right. I had enough for one day.

Then a woman walked into the throne room. She was relatively tall, for a woman, around 5'10, and looked stunning, even in black on black, which is hard. She had excellent physique, perfect jaw bones, and eyes that you could get lost in. She could have given Aphrodite a run for her money. I knew automatically this was Queen Persephone.

"My lady," I said. "It is an honour."

"No need to call me any titles, Jason." Persephone said. "Although your chivalry is commended."

"Thank you Persephone." I said, trying to be as valiant as possible.

"You are very welcome, My Prince."

"Prince?" I asked my father.

"Yes son. You are the prince and heir of my kingdom." Hades said.

"What about Nico?" I asked.

"You are older, and therefore the rightful heir."

"Oh." I said. I was honoured and flabbergasted all at the same time. "Well, thank you, my liege."

"No need with the titles." Hades said, but I could see that he did like being recognized as a king. "Father would do just fine. Or even Hades."

I was shocked. I was always taught to call my parents by sir, ma'am or mom and dad, never their name.

"Okay." I said, a little shocked.

"You should get back to camp son. It's safe there." Hades said, looking generally concerned.

He snapped his fingers and i was back at camp. But i was exhausted, so I went to my cabin and crashed.

"Good night dad." I said as silently as possible.

_Good night son. May the gods be with you. Sleep well. _Hades said in my head. I slept peacefully.


	8. Mr Dionysus

**Chapter 8: Mr. Dionysus**

I woke up to Nico standing over me.

"Dude, you can't do that. It creeps me out." I said, groggy.

"So, you're a son of Hades?" Nico asked. I imagined it was a rhetorical question, but I didn't care.

"Looks like it, doesn't it?" I said, mainly to piss him off so he would get out of my face.

"Pathetic excuse for one." He said.

"Don't push it Nico." I said, a valid warning, if you ask me.

"Oh, I'm so scared. Get up, it's time for breakfast."

"Awesome. I'll be out in a minute." I said.

"Less." Nico said. _Wow, this kid is really pushing my buttons _I thought.

He left and I got dressed and was out the door in less than a minute. I did what I was told. What's the crime in that?

"Well done. 47 seconds. Impressive." Nico said.

"Thank you," I said. But when he turned around, well, if looks could kill...

We walked into the main mess hall. It was relatively big, considering it had a table for the people at the big house, and one for each cabin. By the way, the big house is a large barn like thing in which Chiron, an old fat guy in a track suit, and a few others stayed.

"Order!" Chiron yelled. No one needed to be told twice.

"We have two new campers in our midst today." The fat guy in the track suit said.

"Who's that?" I asked Nico.

"Dionysus, but everyone calls him Mr. D." He answered.

"Please stand, Jacie Nighteren." Nico told me to stand. And I did. "And Taylor Harden." Tyler stood up.

"That's fine. Now sit down, you ingrates." Mr. D said. I was about to strangle him, but I thought twice and sat down.

"Is he always like that?" I asked, quite irritated.

"Yeah."

"Awesome. I'm gonna have oodles of fun with him."

Nico laughed, which was good, I guess.

We all made our sacrifice to the gods. It just involves us giving some of our food to the fire. I sat down, ate, and left.

I checked my schedule, Class One: Sword Fighting 101. _Cool_, I thought. _This'll be fun! _And with that, I took off towards the arena.


	9. Nasty Scars And Beautiful Hunters

**Chapter 8: Nasty Scars And Beautiful Hunters**

I went to my first class of the day, perfectly on time.

"Wow. No one is ever here this early" Percy said to me.

"I'm on time..." I said, confused.

"I know." Percy gave me a little wink.

"So, while we wait, what's with you and Annabeth?" I asked him.

Percy laughed a genuine laugh. He held up his left hand to show me a very nice ring. "We are married, bro."

"How old are you?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"18." He replied simply.

"You want to practice while we wait?" I asked him.

"Sure." He grabbed his pen, and i grabbed the sword from my gauntlet. We unsheathed our weapons and began to fight. It lasted a good 10 minutes. Half way through all of the others showed up. I got in close, used the leverage to my advantage, and disarmed him. I held up my _Xiphos _to his throat and asked him,

"Do you yield?"

"I yield" Percy looked astonished.

I lowered my sword, and he picked up his. Everyone was looking at me, dumbfounded.

"How did he..." Many of them asked. Others were too surprised to speak.

"No one has ever beaten me before, besides..."

"Me." A college age kid stepped out of the crowd. He was tall, around 6' even I'm guessing, and he had a nasty scar down his face, and carried a wicked sword, half bronze, half, steel? I didn't know. "But even then, he bested me eventually."

"Yeah." Percy said.

"I'm Luke by the way. Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes." He put out his hand.

I shook it and said, "Jason. Jason Nightengale, Son of Hades."

"Impressive. We haven't had a child of Hades since Nico, Bianca, and Raven."

"Bianca, Raven?" I asked.

"I'm Raven," a little girl said, probably around 10 or 11.

"Bianca was Nico's sister, but she died four years ago."

"How?" I asked.

Percy was about to respond, but a girl with black hair and stormy blue eyes interrupted him, "Talos killed her." I could tell she was a hunter with her silver outfit and regal expression.

"Who are you, if I may?" I asked, as gentlemanly and chivalrous as possible.

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus." She said.

"Jason Nightengale, Son of Hades."

"Nice to meet you." She said, but she walked off.

I felt someone slap me. "Hey!" Then i realized it was just Percy, joking around.

"What?" I asked, a little annoyed.

"Dude, she likes you." Percy said.

"She can't, she's a huntress."

"She can't while she's a huntress, but she can if she breaks her vows or quits." Luke said.

"That just means no boys. Shouldn't be that hard." I said.

"See? That's the spirit. Go after her man!" Percy said, pushing me. I ran around camp looking for her, and there she was. The huntresses were all at the lake with plenty of spying satyrs. When I saw Thalia, my jaw dropped. She was wearing a silver two-piece bikini, and she looked _HOT! _She could melt Hephaestus with that.

"Mind if I join?" I asked Thalia when she was alone in the lake. I put on my swim trunks in the morning, so i wouldn't have to change later.

"Sure, I guess," She said. "Just don't get any ideas."

"Banish the thought." I said. I put on suntan lotion before class too, so I would tan better in the sun.

I took off my shirt, which was treat enough, and jumped in, splashing Thalia, and she laughed.

I had six pack abs, and a body to die for, if I do say so myself. "Sorry" I said, since I got her all wet.

"It's okay." She said, smiling. _Wow, she is beautiful... _I thought to myself.

"How are you enjoying camp?" She asked me.

"It's awesome. I've never felt more at home." I said.

"I know the feeling." She said, with a hidden something i couldn't place. Sadness? Loathing?

"Yeah. When did you come to camp?" I asked her.

"7 years ago now. It seems so long ago."

"Time flies when you're immortal." I said.

"Yeah, I guess. I haven't been a huntress forever though. I only became one 3 years ago."

"Well you'll stay like that as long as you are one." I said, subtly.

"I don't mind it. But sometimes I wish i had my old life back."

"So why not take it back?"

"Artemis makes me feel special. Something i haven't felt in years."

"But what of the restrictions?"

She looked at me, puzzled.

"You don't see them do you? No boys, you can't age, you don't get to live your life and you get to watch others die around you. What fun is that?"

"I have to go. I'm sorry. I'll see you later."

"Bye Thalia."

She smiled and left. I didn't succeed completely, but I felt I got my point across.


	10. The Search Begins

**Chapter 10: The Search Begins**

When I woke up, I looked over at my clock, which was a skull with a digital clock at the top of its head, which i thought was funny since I was a son of Hades, god of the dead. But anyways, it was 6:52. I woke up, got dressed and went outside. But something wasn't right. It was still pitch black.

_This is weird, it's Summer. _I thought. I ran over to Percy and asked,

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. But I don't like it."

All the gods were assembled, discussing the problem, even my dad was here.

"Dad?"

"Yes Jason?" Hades replied.

"What's going on?"

"I do not know. That's what we were trying to figure out."

"Apollo, where's the sun?" I asked.

"My car won't start, so I couldn't do my trip." Apollo answered, as confused as I was.

"Where's Selene and Helios? Maybe they can help."

"I do not know, Jason. It is risky." Zeus said.

"It is a risk I am willing to take."

"I admire your spirit, boy. But it is impossible" Artemis said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Helios and Selene disappeared years ago. No one knows where they are, not even the gods." Apollo stated. _Well, aren't you Mr. Confident... _I thought.

"We have to find them. It's our only chance." I stated, trying to install confidence.

"If you must, Apollo can help you." Poseidon, the new king of the gods, said.

"Great." I said. _Apollo can help me_, I thought.

"Yeah. Just great. Let's go kid. We've got a long journey ahead of us." Apollo said.

As Apollo made his way to the sun chariot, (which, by the way looks a lot like a Corvette), I said my goodbyes, and left with Apollo. "How do you plan on finding Helios and Selene kid?" Apollo asked me after we took off.

"Helios used to drive the Sun Chariot. Maybe it will be attracted to its former driver." I guessed. It wasn't a very good guess, but it was the best I got. "Wait, if your car's running, how come it is still dark?" I asked, confused.

"My car may be running now, but it's not giving off any energy, so the sun does not rise." Apollo said.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well, this is going to be a long drive."

"Unfortunately."


	11. Lowell

**Chapter 11: Lowell**

After driving for a couple of hours, I got bored and fell asleep. I dreamed a strange dream. Percy once told me that demigod dreams are never just dreams, they always mean something.

I was in a small rural area, it looked like Massachusetts. I went inside a small log cabin, no bigger than a small lodge. Inside, it showed a man, probably in his early thirties, with curly brown hair, with a bright white robe, stormy blue eyes, like Apollo, and teeth that could blind Zeus himself. It seemed like he was waiting for someone.

Then, a woman came walking towards him, probably around his age and the man said, "Morning Selene."

The woman looked a lot like Artemis, she had her eyes, which were a silver color, and long red hair, but was quite a bit taller than Artemis, probably around 5'8, whereas Artemis was only about 5'6.

"Morning brother." She replied.

Brother? This must be Helios and Selene. I expected Helios to look more like Apollo. Instead, he looked more like Hermes, but stronger, and more regal.

"We can't hide from the other gods forever Helios, you know that." Selene said.

"We can, though. We're immortal." Helios said, but it didn't seem like he believed his own words.

"You of all people should know that isn't true." Selene said, with a tone of accusation.

"That's the past Selene." Helios said sadly. "I lost my son already to Zeus, I can't lose you."

"I appreciate your caring brother, but we can't stay hidden. They will find us eventually."

"Not if I can help it." Helios said, almost angrily.

"Helios. Please."

"No Selene." Helios said. He was mad now. "I will not let us be found." He wasn't yelling, but the tone of his voice explained his emotion.

"Lowell has treated us well, but we cannot endanger the people here with our presence much longer. You do not want to have the blood of innocents on your hands again."

Then the dream cut out. What did Selene mean? I wonder. But that is something for another time. I had to find Helios and Selene. It was our only hope.

"Apollo, where are we?" I asked the sun god.

"Nevada." He answered. "Why?"

"We're going the wrong way."

"What? How do you know?"

"I had a dream. I know where they are."

"Where?" Apollo asked intently.

"Lowell, Massachusetts."

Apollo turned around so fast and stomped on the throttle so hard I swear he was going to rip my face off. But it didn't matter. We had to find Helios and Selene, no matter what.


	12. The Originals

**Chapter 12: The Originals**

We landed a few hundred yards in front of Helios and Selene's cabin.

"We have to walk the rest of the way. We can't risk alerting them before the proper time." Apollo said to me. I nodded and began to walk towards the cabin. When we reached the cabin Apollo knocked on the door. Helios answered and became wide eyed, then angry. He blasted Apollo a few hundred feet with a blast of light. When he attacked me, instinctively, I put up my hands and created a wall of dark energy.

"You dare challenge a god?" Helios boomed.

"I am not here to fight." I said. "We need your help."

"Which is something I am not offering, thank you very much." He said as he slammed the door.

I was mad now. If he wasn't going to help us under his own free will, I had my own ways of dealing with him. I drew my sword, grabbed the handle of the door, and ripped it off his hinges. Helios looked surprised and tried to attack me, but I threw the door at him, and it caught him straight in the chest, sending him back into a most uncomfortable looking chair. Before he could rise up, I grabbed his throat and held him at sword point. "You will tell us what we need to know."

"You can't kill me, demigod."

"Maybe not, but a stab in the throat with three feet of killing power won't feel too nice."

"You wouldn't dare." Selene said from behind me, with a sword trained on me. I could feel it's point on my back.

"Oh he would"

_Apollo. Yes! _I thought.

"Long time no see Apollo, been a while." Helios said, still at sword point.

"Indeed it has, Selene, Helios." Apollo said. I turned and saw that my friend had an arrow notched straight for Selene.

"Tell us what we need to know, and I will let you go." I said.

"What do you want to know?" Helios asked.

"Who's causing this darkness?"

"An old friend of Apollo's." Helios answered.

I looked at Apollo, and he shrugged.

"WHO?" I asked, digging my _Xiphos _a little deeper into his skin.

"Fine, I'll tell you. But let me go first."

I let him go. "Think Apollo, who was that old friend of ours? She did something similar to this centuries ago."

Apollo went wide eyed. "No, it can't be."

"Oh but it is" Helios said, with a slight smirk.

"Who is it Apollo?"

"Her name is Nyx." Apollo said. "Goddess of night and vampires."

"Wasn't she killed by Hera?" I asked.

"That's what many think, but it is not true. She has just been hiding." Selene said.

"Wasn't she like... Evil?" I asked.

"Yes and no. She respected the strong, but killed the weak, or turned them into a vampire, to make them strong. So she was good and bad at the same time." Apollo answered.

"Me and Apollo used to be friends with Nyx, until she started just random killings, and we had to stop her." Helios said.

"But it wasn't that easy. She is very powerful, very strong." Apollo said. "We barely trapped her in Tartarus."

"But she escaped and went into hiding until she was powerful enough to challenge the gods once again." Helios said.

"But isn't Tartarus like Alcatraz, virtually impossible to escape?" I asked.

"Yes, she was sprung by a young villain named Polythaeon. But Nyx killed him, to fuel herself." Helios stated.

"Awesome." I said.

"She is no small feat, I warn you boy." Selene said. "Face her with caution."

"It took all the gods to subdue her, until finally, Thanatos brought her to Tartarus." Apollo said.

"What makes you think we can defeat them now?" I asked.

"When we first fought Nyx, we didn't have demigods on our side." Selene said. "That should weigh the odds in our favour for now."

"Are you two coming back with us?" I asked.

"Might as well" Helios said.

"Great. Let's go." Apollo said. And we were off.


	13. Old Feuds and Campfire Singalongs

**Chapter 13: Old Feuds and Campfire Sing-alongs**

When Helios first saw the sun chariot, he began to tear up.

"Are you okay Helios?" I asked.

"I'm fine, I just remembered how beautiful the Sun Chariot was." Helios replied.

"Do you want to drive Helios?" Apollo asked.

"It would be an honour. But I cannot." Helios replied with longing.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I no longer have the power to control it."

"You do. You always have and always will." Apollo said. "You will not make Phaethon's mistake."

"What happened?" I asked Selene.

"Ask Helios. He may tell you." Selene replied.

"Helios?" I asked.

"Yes?" He replied.

"What happened to Phaethon?"

"He was killed by Zeus." Helios replied sadly. "One day, he asked me for a favour, and made me swear on the River Styx to hold to it. I agreed. He said he wanted to drive the sun chariot. I immediately regretted it. I knew he wasn't powerful enough to control the chariot, but I held up to my word. I handed him the reigns and he took off. He couldn't control it, and either caused mass freezes, or droughts when he flew too high or too low. Demeter complained to Zeus, and he did what he knew best. He killed my son with a thunderbolt. When he crash landed, he created the Sahara Desert. I renounced my title as the sun god after that. Promising myself I would never make the same mistake."

"It's true." Apollo said. "Zeus used to be a cold-blooded killer back in his day." The sky boomed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"It's best you watch what you say Apollo." Selene said. "You may be sent to Tartarus again."

"That wasn't fun." Apollo stated, remembering some sort of past event.

"What did you do?" I asked him.

"We live through this war and I will tell you." Apollo said with a smile.

"I'll be waiting." I said, a little ignorantly.

"Your attitude reminds me of me."

"Is that a good thing Apollo?"

"No." Selene joked.

Apollo shot her a death glare, and she shut up immediately. Apollo tossed Helios the keys and jumped into the passenger's seat. "Drive." Apollo ordered Helios, instead of asking.

I jumped in the back of the car with Selene, and Helios drove. He was doing good. We arrived at camp, and I was the first one out, followed by Apollo.

"Did you find them?" Zeus asked, as if he expected us to fail.

"They did more than that, Zeus." Helios said, as he climbed out of the driver's side door, followed by Selene.

"Hello Helios, Selene." Zeus said.

"Good evening Zeus." Selene said.

"Long time, hasn't it been Zeus?" Helios asked, with a tinge of hatred in his eyes.

"Indeed." Zeus stared at Helios directly in the eyes, which must be fairly intimidating, but Helios stood his ground.

Just then, the conch horn blew.

"Time for dinner." I said, trying to lighten the mood. "I thought I missed it."

"Almost." Chiron said, in full stallion form. "Let's go... Helios? Selene?"

"Hello Chiron." Helios said.

"Where have you been all these years?" Chiron asked.

"In hiding, for the most part." Selene said.

"Well, you're back now, which is all that matters. It is time for dinner."

We walked over to our respective tables, but since Helios and Selene didn't have a cabin, they sat at the big house's table. We did our sacrifices to the gods, and went and sat down. I was sitting with Raven, Nico, and my father, Hades, at our respective table. It was a nice dinner, we had lasagne, and I filled my glass with 7-Up. The nice thing about meals at camp is that we have glasses that we can fill with anything to our heart's desire, just as long as it's non-alcoholic. We finished our meals and left. Unfortunately for Tyler and his family, they had clean up duty this week ever since Tyler picked a fight with Phoebe. That's what you get for causing trouble.

After dinner, I had one activity before the campfire, Archery. _What fun_... I thought. I suck at archery. I can barely even hit the target, sometimes I don't even hit the target, which is embarrassing, since I am in that class with Tyler, the best archer in camp. Besides maybe Artemis and Apollo.

"It will be okay, you just have to focus."

I turned around to find myself face to face with my dad, Hades. "Thanks dad." I said.

"Get going, you don't want to be late."

"I'm gone." I said, and sprinted off to archery.

During Archery, I tried what my father said, and just focused. I never got a bullseye, but I never missed my target, which is better than I ever shot before. _Thanks dad... _I thought. Almost immediately, he replied. _You are very welcome son. _He said in my head, and I smiled. _I love you dad. _I thought to him. _I love you too son, don't ever forget that. _He replied. _I won't. I promise. _I prayed/thought, or whatever.

After class, I ran into Thalia, literally. Something was weird about her though. Something I couldn't place my finger on.

"Sorry Thalia." I said, since she landed on her butt.

I helped her up, and she said, "Thanks Jason."

Then I knew what was different about her, she wasn't wearing her huntress gear.

"Thalia. You aren't wearing your gear. What happened?" I asked, concerned.

"I quit the Hunters."

"Why?" I asked.

"You were right Jason. Artemis was stealing my life. I didn't want to remain 16 forever. I need to live life. Grow old, die." Thalia replied. "Immortality just isn't for me."

"I understand." I said, even though I didn't really.

"Thank you. Now let's go to the campfire." Thalia said, enthusiastically.

"Alright." I said.

I noticed something when we were walking to the campfire, Thalia is much more beautiful when she isn't in Hunter gear. When she was, it looked unreal. It didn't fit her personality. Now, she was wearing an old army jacket with an Iron Maiden shirt, ripped black jeans, and combat boots. Some may think that is a little too manly for their taste, but I think it's hot. Don't judge me.

At the campfire, there was a sing along lead by the Apollo cabin. It was understandable, since Apollo is the god of music. I expected lame songs, like at the other camps, but instead they actually played recent songs, such as Disturbed, Three Days Grace, and Nickelback. It was actually lots of fun, I sat next to Thalia and Tyler, who was leading the sing-along. He actually has a very good voice.

After the campfire, I went to my cabin. I fell asleep instantly.


	14. The Quest Begins

**Chapter 14: The Quest Begins**

When I fell asleep, I had a dream. I was in a long, dark hallway, with red banners lining the walls, and weapons of all sorts as a decoration. _What a pleasant place. _I thought.

I noticed a woman in a large throne. She had long red hair, which almost looked like it was on fire. She had blood red eyes, with cat-like pupils, and she had a long dark dress on, which went to just above her ankles. Her fangs just went over her lips, and she looked like a stereotypical bloodsucker. _Nyx. _I thought.

Nyx wasn't an intimidating woman, but just by looking at her, you were scared. She had an aura of pure evil about her. Then, a tall man, probably in his thirties walked into the throne room, I almost didn't notice him without his armour on, but I knew it was Tartarus.

"Lady Nyx." Tartarus, who was bowing now, said.

"Ah, Tartarus. How was your mission?" Nyx asked, with a tint of annoyance.

"I didn't have a chance to kill any of them, but they are scared. They don't know how or when to prepare." He answered.

Nyx looked annoyed. "You didn't kill any of them?"

Tartarus shook his head. "I didn't have the chance."

"Your order was to kill the new son of that blasted Hades. He is too powerful for his own good." Nyx said angrily. "He is the one destined to stop me. I cannot let that happen."

"I understand my Lady. But he is a child of one of the Big Three. He is very powerful. I'm not sure either of us can stop him."

"But we can, you see? He has not honed all of his skills and powers yet, so we are powerful enough to stop him now."

"He is under the protection of his father, you see. Hades with his sons is more powerful than the Big Three's powers put together."

"So we separate them. They are not as powerful then."

"Do not underestimate them, Lady Nyx. They have power beyond imagining if harnessed correctly."

"Do you doubt our mission Tartarus?" Nyx asked with a tone of impatience.

"No, of course not. I just believe we shouldn't underestimate their power." Tartarus said, trying to correct his mistake. _Nice save._ I thought.

"You may have to fight that friend of yours Tartarus."

"Who would that be?"

"Thanatos. He is staying behind his master, Hades."

"I realize that my Lady."

"Good. Now go, you mustn't waste your time. Prepare your armies. We attack..."

Then I was woken fitfully. "What?" I asked Nico, who again was standing over me creepily.

"Wake up." He said, and left without another word.

"Okay, next time be more gentle." I said to him, even though he left.

I woke up, got dressed, you know, the usual routine. I went into the mess hall and arrived in the middle of something. The reason I know that? Chiron was talking with Mr. D, Selene, Helios and the other gods, and the conversation seemed serious.

"Um, what's going on?" I asked Chiron as I walked towards the group.

"It is of nothing you need to be concerned about for the moment, my boy." Chiron replied.

"I know it's about Nyx and her attack. I need to know some of this information." I said, a little annoyed.

"How did you...?" Chiron asked, dumbfounded.

"Wild guess."

"Oh, well, since you're here, I guess you aren't giving up."

"Nope."

"We don't know who is on Nyx's side, but we know she is a large threat."

"That, I can help you with. I know that Tartarus is on her side, but he doubts himself. He knows we have a large force, and that we are a force to be reckoned with. I'd imagine Nyx got some minor gods and goddesses on her side, but not enough to make a significant impact."

"How do you know this Jason?" Athena asked me.

"I had a dream. They're preparing the army. I don't know when they will attack, or where they are, but I know that we should not underestimate them. She will not be as easy to defeat as she was before."

"She wasn't easy to defeat before either kid." Ares said. _Man, this guy really gets on my nerves_. I thought. But I knew it was just his aura that made me feel like that.

"We need a prophecy. That is the only way we can know the outcome." Apollo stated.

"RACHEL!" Zeus yelled with such force that it shook the earth and caused the sky to rumble.

"Who's Rachel?" I asked my father.

"The camp's oracle." Hades replied.

"What?" A red haired girl asked as she walked down through the mess hall.

"We need a prophecy, babe." Apollo said. I didn't know Rachel, but I still hit Apollo for being disrespectful.

"What was that for?" Apollo asked me.

"Being disrespectful."

"Oh."

"Ask me a question, hero." Rachel said.

"Hmm... How will I defeat Nyx?" I asked Rachel.

All of a sudden a green mist poured out Rachel's mouth and she spoke in a voice that wasn't hers.

"_Four heroes shall answer the call,_

_To dark and light the evils must fall,_

_The world encased in endless night,_

_One god shall fall to evil's might,_

_Objective not realized until the final step,_

_All must prevent the final drip."_

Then Rachel collapsed. She was conscious, but dead tired.

"Four heroes? Isn't there only supposed to be three?" Clarisse, the Ares cabin counsellor, asked.

"Yes, but we cannot defy the prophecy." Chiron said.

"Final drip? What's that supposed to mean?" Travis Stoll, counsellor for the Hermes cabin, asked.

"I do not know. But Jason, you are the quest leader. Choose the ones you wish to go with." Chiron replied.

"Let's see." I said, contemplating who to go with. "Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

Thalia walked over to me. "Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon."

Percy stood by me. "And Tyler Hardy, son of Apollo."

Finally, Tyler stood beside me and said, "Let's kick some monster butt, bro."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You leave tonight, get packed." Chiron told us.

I went into my cabin and packed for the long trip. I packed all my clothes, I put on my gauntlets, which had my sword in the right, and a green button I still didn't know what did on the left, just in case, and I also packed my necklace, a gift I got from my mother when I was young. It had the same symbol on the chain as on my gauntlets, a Greek Ω.

When I left my cabin, I walked over to my father. "See you, Dad."

"Fare well son." Hades said.

"Dad?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"What's with the gauntlets?"

"They are for your protection. In your right gauntlet, there is a gravitational _Xiphos. _In the left there is a photonic shield."

"Photonic shield?"

"Yes. Hephaestus crafted the gauntlets and weapons specially for the Omega Warrior. That's you son. "

"Omega Warrior?"

"I will explain more later, press the button on the left gauntlet."

I did as I was told, and all of a sudden, a disc of purplish-black plasma spun out of the gauntlet. It was approximately 3 feet across all ways.

"Your shield is a mixture of Hell Fire, Dark Energy and Plasma." Hades explained. "It is virtually impenetrable."

"Thanks dad." I said, more grateful than I could express. "I love you."

"I love you too son, now go. You don't want to miss Argus' bus. He is very impatient. Ask Hermes sometime."

"Will do. I got to go. Farewell father."

"Goodbye son. Good luck."

I retracted my shield by pressing another button on the back and sprinted to the bus.

All of a sudden, a tall, scrawny man with salt and pepper hair, a little bit of stubble, and sharp cheek bones stopped me.

"Lord Hermes." I said.

"Hello Jason, I will not keep you long. I just want to give you a gift."

"What is it?"

"The speed of Atalanta, the fastest human to ever live. You will be able to run as faster than any man."

He touched my forehead and I felt pain, but then strength. "Thank you Lord Hermes." I said. I started to run for the bus, since it was leaving, and in a flash, I was there. "Hey! Wait up!"

Argus stopped the bus and opened the door. _Ah! _I thought. The man had eyes EVERYWHERE. I sat down, shocked, next to Thalia, and she said "Yeah, Argus is creepy the first time you see him."

"No kidding, he scared the Hades out of me." I replied. _He can't do that, you're my blood. _My father replied in my head.

"Sorry dad."

"Yeah, usually, you don't use your godly parent in a curse." Percy explained from behind us. "And next time, call me Percy, Jason."

"Sorry Perce."

"It's okay man, just don't do it next time."

"Only demons, gods, and his mom when she's really pissed off call him Perseus. Sorry Percy." Thalia said.

"It's okay. You were just explaining something." He replied.

"Do any of us have any idea where we are going?" Tyler asked.

_I do. But cover your eyes everyone._ I could recognize Helios' voice. We all did as we were told.

There was a flash, and when we opened our eyes, there was Helios, clean shaven, his curly brown hair combed back, he was wearing a pair of Ray Ban Sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, a pair of shorts, and sandals. He looked pretty handsome, I guess. Mainly because Thalia was looking wide eyed and slack jawed at Helios.

"Straighten up Thalia." Helios said. "Daddy boy wouldn't be too happy if he saw the look on your face."

That snapped her out of it. "Right." She said. Her dad must be pretty intimidating when he wants to be.

"There's a little bit of information I wish to share with you first though."

"Which is?"

"My dad, and a couple other titans joined Nyx."

"Who's his dad?" Tyler asked.

"Hyperion, but that is impossible. I defeated him, and trapped him in a tree." Percy said.

"He was freed by Tartarus." Helios stated.

"Which other titans joined her?" I asked.

"Krios, Atlas, Iaeptus, and a few others." Helios replied. "Including Kronos."

"Impossible." Percy said.

"Quite possible actually."

"I killed him."

"You can't kill an immortal, but his essence reformed faster than we expected." Helios said. "But this time, he formed his own body, not needing a host."

"How?" Thalia asked.

"I do not know." Helios replied. "No one does."

"Awesome. Now where do we go?" I asked.

"Right." Helios said. Argus swerved right, hard, knocking me into Thalia. "Not that kind of right Argus! Go to New York Airport."

"To go where?" I asked, a little impatiently now.

"St. Petersburg, Russia."

_Awesome. _I thought. Why? My mom is half Russian. My grandfather taught me fluent Russian before he died.

"Check the Winter Palace, that's where they're stationed." Helios said. "But beware, it won't be easy."

"It's never easy." Percy said.

Helios smiled, and _poof! _He was gone.

"В Россию" I said.

"What?" Percy asked.

"'Off to Russia' in Russian." I said, with a stupid grin.

"Well, you speaking Russian will help." Thalia said.

It was a relatively long and boring bus ride to the airport. If you didn't know this, New York City is huge. It took us just over an hour to get there, and considering it has the largest population in the United States, traffic was horrible.

"We're here." I said.

We grabbed our bags and got out. Waiting for us outside was, of course, Lord Ares.

"Hey Ares. How's your ankle?" Percy asked.

"Not bad, kid. Here you are." Ares said as he handed us four tickets. "Good to have you out of my hair for a bit, at least."

"Or lack thereof." I said, since Ares has a buzz cut.

"Funny guy. Now go. Your plane leaves in twenty." Ares said. He snapped his fingers and our bags evaporated.

_Shadow travel son. _My father said in my head.

_I don't know how. _I replied.

_Clear your mind. Imagine yourself there. Now go. _Hades said.

I did as I was told. "Everyone, hold on to me." They did as I said. And in a flash of darkness, and a feeling that I was going faster than the speed of light, I was at our terminal, along with my friends.

"Dude..." Tyler said. His long blond hair looked like it just went through a leaf blower. So did Percy and Thalia. I'm lucky I spike my hair, otherwise I would have been the same way. Anyways, off to Russia we go.


	15. Long Flights and Angry Fathers

**Chapter 15: Long Flights and Angry Fathers**

As we got on to the plane, I thought, _Wow, they didn't even notice my gauntlets._ They were sticking out at least a half centimetre from my black leather jacket sleeves. _And they won't. The mist just says that they are watches, or bracelets. _My father said in my head. _Bracelets? How manly. _I thought.

We sat in our seats, and Ares wasn't cheap. He got us the best seats in First Class. I sat with Thalia while Percy sat with Tyler. I looked over to Percy, and he was looking at a picture in his wallet. It was of Annabeth and a little boy I didn't recognize. "Who's the kid?" I asked.

"Annabeth and Archie. My world." Percy said. "I miss them."

"Archie?" I asked.

"My son."

"How old is he?"

"Four."

"What?"

"Relax bro. He was a brain child. Like Athena's children." He explained. "Annabeth inherited the trait."

"You loved her when you were fourteen?"

"Always have and always will."

"Huh." I said, with excellent verbal skills. "Sorry I didn't pick Annabeth, Percy. This team, it just felt right."

"I get it Jason. It's just the first quest I've been on without Annabeth."

"Okay, get some rest dude. It's a long flight." I said, and with that, he fell asleep. I didn't feel like sleeping, apparently neither did Thalia. But Tyler sure as Hades did. He snored. LOUD.

"You should get some rest, Thals." I said.

"I'm fine. I should be saying the same thing to you." She replied.

"I slept on the bus."

"I did too."

"I know. I was there. I still need to clean the drool off my jacket." I said, since she slept on my shoulder the entire way after Helios left. Frankly, I didn't mind.

"Sorry, did I?"

"No. I just said that to bug you."

"Tyler doesn't even shut up in his sleep." Thalia said with a smile

I looked over and realized she was right. He just kept saying "Lynn..." over and over again.

"Wow." I said.

"Yeah."

"Thalia?"

"Yeah Jason?"

"What if, hypothetically, someone you know, liked you more than just a friend? You know, hypothetically." I asked, of course talking about me.

"I think that, _hypothetically," _she replied to mock me. "That that certain someone should come out with it, and him and I carry on from there."

"You know, hypothetically, that person may be someone like... me." Lame. I know. But it was all I could think of on the dot.

"I know Jason." She replied. "I'm not that dense."

Then, she did something I didn't expect, she leaned over and kissed me. I felt like my brain was melting through my feet. Awesome analogy, eh?

"Wow." I said, since that was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

She laughed, and touched noses with me. All that I could think of was _Wow, her eyes are absolutely stunning. _"I love you Thalia." I said.

"I love you too Jason. That's the reason I left the Hunters. I fell in love with you. I knew it ever since the day at lake"

Then I felt a firm grasp on my neck and was yanked from my seat. Whoever it was sure was strong. He tossed me down the aisle, and I landed face first into the carpeted floor. All this without waking anybody up. Go figure.

All of a sudden I heard, "Daddy!" It was Thalia's voice. Wait, Zeus?

I turned to find a large man in a pin-striped suit, white hair, a long beard, and Thalia's eyes. "What?" I asked, stupefied.

"Get your dirty hands off my daughter, corpse boy." Zeus said with a unrivalled power.

"Enough, Zeus."

I turned, again, to find my father standing over me.

"You dare disrespect me Hades?"

"You are no longer king of the gods, Zeus, I have no reason to fear you."

"I am more powerful than any god!"

"Not when he has demigods on his side." Percy said, with Riptide pointed straight for Zeus' jugular. "I may not be able to kill you, but a stab to the jugular will hurt like Hades. No offense, My Lord."

"None taken." My father replied. "Leave now, Zeus, or feel Celestial Bronze."

"You have not won, boy." Zeus said, and was gone in a flash.

"Is everyone okay?" Hades asked.

"I'm fine." I said.

"We're all good." Percy said.

I looked over and found Tyler still asleep. Go figure. He sleeps like a rock. I went to my seat, a little stunned, and Thalia sat down next to me, and put her hand on mine. "I'm so sorry Jason."

"It's not your fault Thalia. Don't be sorry." I said.

"He's right Thalia. Don't beat yourself up." Hades said.

"Thank you Lord Hades." Thalia said.

"You are welcome. I must go. Goodbye and good luck." And with that, he shadow-traveled away.

Well, it will be a long flight there. But I'm ready for anything. _Here we go. _I thought.


	16. Russia

**Chapter 16: Russia **

When we landed in St. Petersburg, we went through all the customs and stuff, and it took us just about an hour to get through the airport and get all of our stuff. As we were leaving the airport, we ran into the king of the gods himself, Poseidon.

"Hey dad." Percy said.

"Lord Poseidon." I said, and bowed.

"No need for the formalities, Jason," Poseidon said. "I just showed up to tell you to have good luck, and be careful. Nyx is very powerful."

"Indeed." I turned to find Lady Athena. "She was hard to beat with all the gods, it will be even more difficult now."

"Thank you for the warning, Athena, Poseidon." I said.

"Anytime." Poseidon said. "But we must be off. Good bye, heroes."

"Well, the gods need to tell us something we don't know." I said.

"As you wish, my son." Hades said, who was standing by a bus terminal.

"Hey dad." I said.

"You and Tyler have a power that sets you apart from your siblings." Apollo said, who was standing with my father.

"Which is?" Tyler asked.

"Tyler, you can summon the Sun Chariot at will. Jason, you can summon the Chariot of Darkness." Hades said.

"How?" I asked.

"Just picture a car in your mind, at imagine it materializing in front of you."

I did as I was told, and I pictured my favourite car in front of me, a Dodge Viper, 2011 model. I opened my eyes, and there it was, a fully black Dodge Viper.

"Well done, son. That car can travel faster than any car ever made." My father said.

"Thank you." I said.

"We must be like our brother and go." Hades said, and disappeared along with Apollo.

I jumped into the driver's seat and buckled up my seatbelt. Safety first, right? As soon as I did that, the car powered to life. _Awesome! _I thought.

We took off to the winter palace, and since it traveled faster than any car, we got there in under 15 minutes.

"Well, that was efficient." Tyler said.

"Yeah." Percy said, with his hair a total mess from the speed we were going.

"Roll up your window next time." Thalia said with a smile.

We got out and looked around, and I quite frankly wasn't disappointed. The place was huge. People say that it would take eleven days just to see every room in the Winter Palace. Judging by the size, I believed it.

"They say it will take eleven days to see every room in the Winter Palace." I said.

"Well we don't have eleven days." Percy said.

"We'd better get started then." Tyler said.

"Might as well." I said, and we walked inside.


	17. Dude With The Lyre

**Chapter 17: Dude With The Lyre**

As we walked inside, I was amazed. The architecture was top of the line. The roof bowed into a dome and there were various engravings, too many to translate. The place was swarmed with tourists. Why, you ask? A few years after the last Tsar of Russia, the place was turned into a museum of history. The exhibits ranged anywhere from Conjured Egypt to Ancient Greece to WWII era.

We walked through the museum a little ways, and had absolutely no idea where to start.

"Where should we start?" Tyler asked.

"I have no idea." I said, as dumbfounded as anyone.

A tall man walked up to us and told us, "Lady Nyx has been expecting you." The man was tall, around 6 foot even, he had curly blonde hair and piercing green eyes, but they had a tint of sadness and longing in them.

He walked down a long hallway, deeper into the museum. We didn't know what to expect, so we followed him. We walked for about five minutes, and came into a large room lined with ancient relics. I recognized the exhibit as Ancient Greece. We walked up to a large statue labelled Νυξ, Greek for _Nyx._

"ανοιχτό" The tall blonde man said, which was Greek for _Open. _The statue glowed with a dark blue light and the blond man stepped through the statue, and I mean actually _straight through _the statue. I touched the statue, and the image sort of rippled, and my hand went through the statue.

We stepped through and found ourselves in a large, black walled room. It was the same room from my dream.

From a door that was in the far right corner stepped through Nyx and Tartarus, who was wearing an Italian suit and Nyx was wearing a traditional Greek robe, except her robe was pitch black. Sort of ironic I think. A man who is Nyx's servant wearing a modern day suit and his master wearing her gown from thousands of years ago. Who would've thought? Well, I don't know what you think. But anyways, back to the situation at hand.

"Hello children." Nyx said, with a much more soothing voice than expected. "Well done Orpheus."

"Orpheus?" I said.

"You speak my name, demigod?" He replied.

"I do. Do you think Eurydice would want this?" I said, almost harshly. "She was beautiful and kind of soul. She would not want you to turn over to the side of evil."

Orpheus just stopped talking and bowed his head. I wasn't sure what he was thinking, but I had a hunch that he had a feeling of remorse.

"I'm sorry, children. But Nyx will allow me to be with my Eurydice now that I brought you." Orpheus replied. "I wish to claim my reward, Nyx."

"As you wish." She said with an evil smile.

I realized what she was planning only when it was too late. "Join her in hell." She said. She fired a blast of Hell Fire at Orpheus and he was incinerated. He had a look of shock on his face before he was killed.

"No..." Thalia said, almost crying. I didn't blame her. Orpheus was pure of heart, I sensed that before he died.

"He will achieve Elysium." I said.

"Perhaps. But now it's your turn." She said, and blasted a ray of dark energy at us.

"We're screwed." Tyler said. _Awesome. Morale is in the dumps and we're gonna be incinerated. Just awesome. _And I braced myself, ready for the worst.


	18. Pyrinas, Force Of Death

**Chapter 18: Pyrinas, The Force Of Death**

The wall of dark energy hit us, and nothing happened. I felt a little singe but otherwise nothing major. _Let me out, Jason. I don't have enough power to fight her now, but I can help you escape. _A voice in my head said. I knew it was the Dark Core. I didn't want to, but I did. I could feel power and strength flowing through me. Then, the power around me exploded, causing a shockwave that broke the ground around me.

"You dare assault me?" I said, in a voice that was mixed with my own and the Dark Core's.

"It can't be..." Nyx said, more stunned than frightened. "Pyrinas?"

I don't know why, but I recognized that name. "You inhabit a demigod? I'm surprised you haven't incinerated him yet."

"Why?" Thalia asked.

"Pyrinas was a hero turned god, but he was killed and just turned into a primeval force, nowadays known as the Dark Core." She answered with a smirk.

"I won't fight you now. But in time." I said, a little cocky, and shadow travelled to camp.

We ended up on the beach, looking out to the ocean, and I collapsed on to my knees. I looked in the water and saw what I truly look like when the Dark Core inhabits me. My hair was spiked, and not like usual. It sort of looked like Super Saiyan hair from that Dragon Ball Z show, except it was raven black. My eyes, instead of a hazel were blue-purple orbs. I had a purplish black aura around me, and was radiating absolute, I know this may sound weird, but I radiated pure death. Then, I went back to normal, and almost passed out, except Tyler and Percy caught me before I could fall into the water face first, and most likely drown. "Jason, you okay man?" Tyler asked.

"No, get me to the infirmary." They did as I told them, and they rushed off to the infirmary with me in between them, supporting myself on their shoulders.

They ran up to the door, and I said, "Hang on." They stopped, and I summoned the last of my strength and kicked the door, and it went flying and knocked over an Apollo camper who was walking towards us. "Sorry." I said, and passed out


	19. Day At the lake

**Chapter 19: Day At The Lake**

When I woke up, it was 6:00 in the evening the next day with stormy blue eyes studying me. I thought they were Zeus' eyes, but instead I sent Apollo to the empty bed across from me with a right jab.

"Apollo?" I asked, a little ashamed.

"Hey, kid, you're awake." He said, with his feet straight up in the air, and him spitting out pillow feathers.

"Seems like it, my head is killing me." I said, mainly because _it was. _It felt like someone went savage inside my head with a jackhammer.

"Yeah, the Dark Core is a powerful force." He replied, finally standing, but with a little nosebleed. Except when immortals 'bleed', they actually bleed _ichor. Ichor _is the golden blood of the immortals. Gods, titans, and all other immortals bleed this golden liquid. I got up, and Apollo said "Not a good…" He didn't get the chance to finish that sentence, since I did a pretty hard face-plant.

"Ow…" I said, as Apollo turned me over.

"That little scene with Nyx drained you." He said, with a half smile.

"How…?" I asked.

"Tyler." He replied.

"Right." I said. _Here, _Pyrinas said in my head. _Take some of my strength. _I could feel his power surge through me. My muscles rippled, my tendons and ligaments stretched, and I was full health, and then some. I felt stronger than ever. I did a back hand spring and was on my feet. Apollo just stared, stunned. I flexed my arms and they almost seemed bigger. Anyways, I went outside and spread my arms, since I was stiff for staying still over 12 hours.

When I opened my eyes there was Thalia, and her eyes were bloodshot. "Hey…" I said, but, like Apollo, I didn't get a chance to finish. She slapped me so hard that I swear my teeth would fall out. Then, she did something I really did not expect. She kissed me ferociously, and I almost fell over. You want to know what I was thinking, hmm? _Ow. _Partially, from getting hit. But otherwise, absolutely nothing. I felt like melting.

"Don't ever scare me like that ever again, ok?" She said, and I assumed she'd been crying. "I didn't know what would happen to you."

"It takes more than a puny primordial goddess to take this guy down." I said with a smile. We walked over to the beach, hand in hand, and as Thalia was about to sit down on the beach, I picked her up by the waist and tossed her into the water. She landed with a big _splash! _and I just sat there busting my gut with laughter.

"Hey!" Thalia yelled at me, not in anger, but since she was probably ten feet out, she had to.

As I was about to jump in, Annabeth walked over to me, with her brother Malcolm, both studying a piece of paper. "Jason!" Annabeth called out.

"What?" I asked.

"Can you explain this?" Malcolm asked me, handing me the piece of paper.

"I can most certainly try." I said, and I recognized the Binomial Theorem. The equation is .

"The Binomial Theorem." I said with a smile. "It is the theorem that specifies the expansion of any power (_a_ + _b_)_m_ of a binomial (_a_ + _b_) as a certain sum of products _a__i__b__j_, such as (_a_ + _b_)2 = _a_2 + 2_ab_ + _b_2."

"Wow. Thanks Jason." Annabeth said, then she winked at me. "Have fun." She whispered in my ear.

I smiled at Annabeth's comment and took off my shirt, so I just had my old shorts on and my gauntlets. I jumped in and splashed Thalia as I swam over to her.

"You're mean." Thalia said in her best spoiled kid voice as she could manage.

"I know." I said, with a devilish grin.

We swam back to the shore and laid on the beach. I looked over to her and she had her eyes closed, she wasn't asleep, I could tell, she was just sunbathing. _Damn, _I thought, _Thalia could give Aphrodite a run for her money._

"Thalia." I said.

"Hmm?" She inquired as she opened one eye to look at me.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too Jason." She said as she leaned over and rested her head on my bare chest. I looked up at the still night sky and thought, _Zeus will kill me for this. _I looked down at her, lifted her chin, and kissed her. I smiled at her and she smiled back.

Thalia got up and walked over to the water's edge."Going somewhere?" I asked as I stood up.

"No." She said, as she turned around and tackled me. She was on top, and I was on the bottom, and don't you dare take that wrong. She gave me a little peck on the lips, then a kiss, then a full out make out fest. We must have done that for at least 15 minutes before we broke for air. She was hyperventilating and so was I.

"I love you, Jason Nightengale, Son of Hades."

"I love you too, Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus."

We went back to our cabins, and I walked Thalia to hers first. I kissed her goodnight, and went to mine. I opened the door, went to my bed, and completely, and utterly... Passed out.


	20. Newbies

**Chapter 20: Newbies**

I woke up the next morning, fully rested. Surprisingly, I was the only one awake. I walked over to Nico's bunk and yelled. "WAKE UP!"

Nico was so startled that he actually fell off the top bunk, right on top of me. "Ouch." Both me and Nico said at once. Nico, because he fell of the top bunk, me because he landed on top of me.

"What time is it?" Nico asked me.

"Eight in the morning, sleepy-head." I said, with a little hint of a smile.

He got up, and went into the bathroom to get dressed and showered. When he came out, he was wearing a ripped denim jacket, combat boots, ripped jeans and an Iron Maiden shirt.

"Classy." I said with a wink.

"Shut up and get ready. Breakfast is in half an hour."

I did as I was told and went to the bathroom to get dressed. I was wearing my black leather jacket, a Camp Half Blood t-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, a pair of combat boots, like Nico, and my gauntlets, (of course). I was still a little bedraggled, but I was able to go on with my day.

I went into the mess hall, did my sacrifice to the gods and sat down at the Hades table. Apparently it was waffles that morning. After I ate, I cleared my plate and went to my first class. _Off to Ancient Greek History._ I thought.

I started to walk over to the Big House, where the class is held, then I thought, _I have to try this. _I broke into a jog, then a run, then a sprint, then I tapped into the Speed of Atalanta. All of a sudden, I was travelling faster than humanly possible. I was at the Big House within 30 seconds. I sat down and Annabeth started talking about how Hephaestus made an invisible golden net to capture Ares and Aphrodite together. Then I heard a blood curdling scream. _It's coming from Half Blood Hill! _I thought. I turned and found a little girl trying to drag an older boy over the hill.

"Jason. Go." Annabeth told me, since she knew I was the only one who could get there in time. I stood up, nodded, and used the Speed of Atalanta to get there in under thirty seconds. The little girl mustn't have been more than ten. The boy who she was dragging was unconscious and bleeding, and he looked about 15.

"Get behind me." I said. The girl nodded through her frightened tears. She tried to pass the camp boundaries, but they wouldn't let her. _How is this possible? _I thought. They look like half bloods, but I couldn't place their parents. I turned back to the thing they were running from and found one of my least favorite gods in front of me.

"Zeus." I said.

"Let me pass. The children must die." He said, with complete seriousness.

"Why?" I asked, a little angry, but a little stupefied.

"Look behind you." He said with a smirk, but there was no humor in his tone.

I did, and what I found completely dumbfounded me. Above the girl's head, there was a golden orb, with a sky blue E inside of it. Above the boy's head, who was still unconscious, there was a black orb with crossed scythes inside of it. The boy was a son of the one I hated more than any god. Kronos.


	21. I Get Killed By A Traitor

**Chapter 21: I Get Killed By a Traitor**

"Kronos." I said, confused on my emotions.

"Yes, and do you know the parent of the… Other one?" Zeus said in disgust.

"No." I said, trying to decipher what she was the daughter of. Yeah. I said _what _not _who. _Titans were worse than any god. Even Nyx.

"She is the daughter of Hyperion. Lord of the East, Titan of the Sun, Light and father of _Helios." _Zeus said, casting a sideways glance at Helios.

"It doesn't matter Zeus." Hades said. "We cannot assume the children to be the father. This is a safe haven for ALL half-bloods."

"They should not even be considered in the same ranks as our children!" Nemesis said.

"Why shouldn't they be? Hmm?" I asked. "You are acting as selfish as Kronos himself Nemesis!"

"You dare insult me? Goddess of REVENGE!" She said as she grew to ten, fifteen, twenty feet.

"You do not intimidate me, false goddess." I said, as I stood tall, looking up to her. I will admit, I was scared out of my blue jeans, but I didn't show it.

She started to glow. The brilliance was so great that I couldn't look away. She assumed her true godly form and I felt… Nothing.


	22. Third Person POV

**Chapter 22: Third Person POV**

"NO!" Thalia screamed as she ran over to Jason. He was cold, his eyes were closed and he was as pale as a ghost.

"You killed him. Nemesis. YOU KILLED MY SON!" Hades bellowed.

"I thought he knew enough to look away." Nemesis said, and shrugged indifferently.

"You dare…" Apollo said, fuming with pure anger. "He was one of the children of the prophecy."

"You don't think she realizes that, Apollo?" Everyone turned to find Nyx, Goddess of Night and Vampires.

"Nemesis?" Zeus asked. "You betray us?"

"Of course, you old fool." She said, with a smile. "I was never accepted by ANY of you. Now's MY time to shine."

"Anyone else wish to join me?" Nyx asked. "I can give you unimaginable power. Power that gods not only WON'T but CAN'T grant you."

"He… He's breathing." Thalia muttered. "He's breathing! Jason!" She said with more force now. She was pounding on his chest, trying to wake him up. Repeatedly yelling "JASON!"

"Impossible." Nemesis said. "That would have killed anyone else instantly."

"Besides me." Jason Grace, Thalia's little brother said, since he already encountered Hera's true form.

"Not… quite… impossible." Jason said, as he stood slowly, but surely. He looked weak, and in incredible pain.

"Not quite" Jason said again, a little more proudly.


	23. Me Again

**Chapter 23: Me Again**

The truth about my condition? I felt like I got eaten by a dragon, spat out, kicked around and put through a blender. Awesome analogy, eh?

"Jason?" My father asked me.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." I said, a little cockier than I felt.

"How…?" Nyx asked, dumbfounded.

"I don't know entirely, but I have a score to settle with Nemesis." I sauntered over to her, at a leisurely pace, no doubt, but I backed her into the ocean. She had nowhere to go.

"S-Stay… Stay away!" She pleaded. But I wasn't listening. Nyx came up behind me, quieter than humanly possible and went for the death blow with a sword that I have no idea where she got it. My father was too fast though. He hit her with a blast of Hell Fire and she flew past me and Nemesis.

"Good luck Nemesis." Nyx said, and _poof! _She was gone. Nemesis looked stunned and I took the opening. I grabbed her throat and lifted her off the ground.

"Die." I said. I could feel the power of Pyrinas flow through me, and Nemesis started to burn. Not with regular fire though. It was a purplish black fire that was so hot it seared the pavement under us.

She completely disintegrated after a minute of screaming and burning. "How did you…?" My father asked me. The truth was, I didn't know.

"I… I don't know." I said, pretty confused.

"Jason... You just summoned Hell Fire in its purest form. The most powerful force known to any man."

"How?" I asked.

"I do not know. Not even I can do that." Hades replied, trying to assess the situation, it seemed.

"I'm a freak!" I screamed. "Stay away from me!" I was scared. I just killed a goddess in a way that not even my father can achieve. I didn't want to hurt anyone I cared about. Especially Thalia. _I'm sorry Thalia. _I thought and ran off. I used the Speed of Atalanta and was at my cabin. I ran inside, slammed the door and locked all of the locks. I ran over and locked the windows and pulled down the shades. I hid in a corner, and believe it or not, I started to cry.

"Do not fret son." I heard my father say to me. "Maybe this will make you feel better."

I was about to ask him what he was talking about, but in a flash I was sitting on... My front lawn. He teleported me home. Well, my previous home. I stood up and I was about to knock, but then I realized something. _What am I going to say? _I thought. _Might as well make it up as I go. _I knocked and I heard some footsteps coming from behind the door.

"Here we go." I said to myself.

"Hello?" My little sister said as she opened the door. She went wide-eyed as soon as she said it. "Jason?" She asked me.

"Hey Pumpkin." I said to her. It was my nickname for her ever since she understood me.

"Mommy!" She screamed into the house. I guess Ashley wasn't my real sister. She was my step sister. She was my step father's and my mother's child. She was about 5'5 now. She had long red hair, like my step father. She was a cute little thing, with freckles and a button nose she never grew out of.

"What is it Ashley?" She asked as she walked to the door. She mustn't have noticed me at first, since she paid me no heed.

"Look!" She said, jumping up and down and pointing at me.

She looked over to me and I gave her my patented stupid grin. She went wide-eyed as soon as she saw me. Her expression went from disbelief, to shock to her angry face. _Uh oh. _I thought. My Mom is not a pretty sight when she is mad. She is normally very pretty with a nice physique and a face of a model. But when she is mad, well, needless to say, clear the area. My mom is half Russian, half Greek. Not a good mix for when she gets mad.

"Ashley, could you excuse us for a minute?" My mom asked_. Uh oh x2 _I thought. Ashley nodded and skipped away. My mom closed the door behind her and stepped out on to the terrace with me.

"Hi mom." I said, preparing for the worst.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" My mom bellowed. My ears are a little bigger than average, so more sound-waves get received, and at a higher frequency. So, it hurt like Hades.

"Camp." I said plainly. I wasn't lying, but it wasn't the entire truth, I guess.

"You snot nosed kid, get inside and so help me god..."

"What?" I said, rather ignorantly. That earned me a one way ticket to a smack in the mouth. "Ow."

"Don't back talk, boy!" She yelled. "ROBERT!" She yelled up the stairs, which, again hurt my ears.

"What is it Barbara?" He asked.

"Look who FINALLY decided to show up." She said in a rather ignorant way, which was really starting to piss me off.

"Hey Bobert." I said, with a smirk. Many people called him Bob, so I decided to call him Bobert.

"Jase?" He asked.

"What can I do you for?" I asked, rhetorically.

"Shut your mouth, boy!" My mother yelled. "No one needs your attitude."

"Settle down mom."

That almost gave me another smack, but I caught her hand in midair. The bad part? I still didn't fully realize my own strength. I tossed her hand away, which, with my luck, tossed her too. She flew ten feet into the sofa.

"Jason?" My stepdad asked me.

"Sorry. I just don't realize my own strength." I said, looking at my hands.

"GET OUT! You're not my son!" My mother screamed at me.

"Mom..."

"NOW!" I started to back up, then I bumped into something, no, _someone. _It wasn't Robert or my mother, and I could hear my sister upstairs. So, who was it?

I whirled around to find myself face-to-face with Hades himself. "Dad?"

"Hades?" My mom asked.

"Hello Barbara." The Lord of Death said.


	24. Family Feuds

**Chapter 24: Family Feuds**

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Robert asked.

"Jason's biological father." Hades replied.

"You dare show your face here AGAIN?" My mother screamed, who was still on the sofa.

"Barbara, you know I had no choice." Hades said, sadly.

"You never listen to your brother! Why did you start eighteen years ago? With your son?" My mother started to cry now.

"I had no choice. You both would've been killed." Hades said.

"You could've protected us."

"I couldn't have gone against his orders. He was too powerful."

"Dad. Let's go." I said.

He nodded and held on to my shoulder. As we were leaving, I heard my mom scream at us, "GO TO HELL!"

We shadow travelled to camp, and we were greeted by all the campers. But only a few of the gods.

I couldn't see her, but I could hear her. Aphrodite screamed at her children. "Get away from that monster!"

That set me off. I pushed through the crowd, and stood nose to nose with Aphrodite. I ignored her magic and my face turned red hot.

"You think I'm the monster Aphrodite?" I asked, fuming with anger so hot you could've cooked a hundred eggs on my temper. "YOU ARE! You are the one who abandoned all of your children's fathers! Some never recovered." I took a sideways glance at Piper, Thalia's brother's girlfriend, who was a daughter of Aphrodite.

"You..." She began to say. But I cut her off.

"You encourage your sons and daughters to make others fall in love with them, and break their hearts! Do you think that's right? Don't answer that, because it's NOT!" I yelled. "I may be a monster in your eyes, but you're the monster in everybody else's."

Aphrodite had a history of having a temper, and she proved that. She ran away, I was hoping to go sulk, but no such luck. She clocked Thalia, and got her into a strangle hold.

"You come any closer, I snap her, you monster!" She yelled.

"You are only verifying my point, you overgrown, stuck up, preppy, plastic SKANK!" I yelled at her. No one hurts Thalia.

Saying that, it caused her to drop her guard a little. That gave Thalia just enough time to elbow Aphrodite in the stomach, and run over to me. Aphrodite was holding her stomach, Thalia must have hit her hard. Or she was just a wimp.

She tried to lunge but Zeus and Hades stood in her way. "No one hurts my son and gets away with it." Hades said.

"Same with my daughter." Zeus said. _Did they just agree on something? _I thought to myself.

"You will pay for this, boy." Aphrodite said, and walked away.

"Nice one, kid." Hephaestus said. Hephaestus was buff and grimy, with a thick beard, a mangled face, and a brace on his left leg. He may have been more intimidating if he didn't stand five foot nothing.

"Heph?"

"Yeah?"

"You're giving me kudos?" I asked him.

"She's my wife, and I love her. But she can be a little stuck up at times." He said with a crooked smile. No, not like mine or Percy's. His teeth were horrible. They were crooked and rotting, with an amount of gingivitis that would give every dentist in the world a run for their money. _Gross. _I thought. But I appreciated Hephaestus' support.

"Thanks cousin." I said.

"Anytime. Anyways, I'd better go talk to her. Get her to calm down." He said, and he limped off. In case you didn't know, Hephaestus' limp came from his oh so loving mother, who is Hera. When she had Hephaestus, she realized he was an ugly baby and threw him off Mount Olympus. He shattered both legs on the landing, but only one of his legs healed, leaving the other permanently lame, or crippled in other words.

I went over to Thalia, who had her back turned to me and was talking to Annabeth. "You okay Thals?" I asked. She turned and I saw she was not okay. She had a broken nose, and her throat was bruised. "Oh no, you're not."

"Is it that bad?" She asked.

"No, here, just let me fix it..." I said, as I grabbed her nose and re-adjusted it with a loud _crack_. She screamed at punched me in the stomach. Hard.

"And you think a broken nose hurts." I said, and held my gut.

"Sorry babe." She said.

"S'okay." I grunted. "Here. Let's go see Apollo." We walked over to the Sun god, and he looked over.

"Oh." He said, obviously a little taken aback. "Here." He placed his hands over Thalia's face, and a strange glow emanated from his hands. When he took them away, she was healed. No bruises, but her nose is still a little crooked.

"I'm sorry about Aphrodite, Thalia." Zeus said as he walked over to us. I quickly took a step away, and Zeus just smiled. "Wise choice, corpse boy."

"Thank you sir."

"Lay off, Zeus. Your daughter is allowed to fall in love." Poseidon said. "Athena wasn't happy with Annabeth loving Percy for a long time, but she eventually cooled off."

"Yeah. When you and her were married." Zeus said with a chuckle.

Poseidon just shook his head and left. "I've got my eyes on you, boy." He said, and he pulled me aside. "What'd you get Thalia for her 17th?" He asked.

"Oh gods no. That's tomorrow isn't it?" I asked. Zeus just nodded. "Cover for me."

"Will do." He said, and walked over to Thalia, hopefully to keep her occupied.

I ran as fast as the Speed of Atalanta would carry me. Which is pretty darn fast. I tore up some serious turf. Literally. There was a line of torn up ground behind me where I had been running. I ran up to Percy and asked, "What does Thals need for her birthday?"

"You haven't got her one yet?" He asked. I shook my head. "She needs a new sword." I sprinted off to the Hephaestus cabin. I had to see Leo.

"Leo. I need you to do something for me." I said when I got there. Still out of breath, I explained my plan to him. He smiled and nodded.

"Will do." I ran off to my cabin. I needed plenty of rest for tomorrow.


	25. Proposal

**Chapter 25: Proposal**

Today was the day. I was gonna do it. I got permission from Chiron to leave camp, and I was back within the hour. I ran over to Thalia, with her new sword behind my back, and a little extra in my pocket. We had Sword Fighting 101 together, and I absolutely destroyed the dummies Percy put in front of me. I was stoked for today. Before class, I hid her sword in the bushes, and kept the little extra in my pocket.

During lunch, when absolutely everyone was gathered for lunch, I walked over to my dad first, and told him to keep Aphrodite in line. I walked over to Zeus and asked him for his blessing. Yeah, I was going to propose to Thalia. The sky was still dark and a little cold, but I couldn't feel more nervous and hot.

After lunch was over, I walked over to Thalia, and held on to her sword, and presented it to her. "Happy birthday Thalia." I said. I unsheathed the sword, and in perfect calligraphy. it said, Thalia, I love you.

"I love you too Jason." She said. "Thank you." She took the sword and examined the writing.

I got down on one knee, and said, "Look on the other side." I pulled out a little velvet box, and waited for her to look on the other side. She did, and in the same calligraphy, it said Thalia Grace, will you marry me? I opened the box, and inside of it was a ring, the most beautiful I could find. It was a platinum band with a large emerald in the middle, and on either side there was a blue topaz stone, and a diamond, 24 karats, in that order.

"Yes, YES! A thousand times yes!" Thalia screamed with excitement. Everyone started to clap and cheer. Thalia tackled me with such force, I thought she would break me. Then she crashed her lips to mine. It was the best day of my life.

You're thinking, _Hey! They aren't 18! _right? Well, you see, when you are a demigod, it gets pushed back a year. Most don't live to be 18, so you can propose when you are 17, and get married at 17 as well. It was a rule made in the early seventies when the gods realized that most demigods don't live past 17.

Thalia had to be pulled off of me by Percy so I could breathe. Percy and Tyler each reached out their hand so I could stand. I took their hands, and I pulled myself up off of the ground.

"Congratulations man." Percy said.

"Thank you." I said. I was still rubbing my ribcage. Thalia wasn't as light as she looked. I would guess around 130 pounds at the time. The thing was, it was all muscle.

Nico walked up to us and pulled me aside. "What is it?" I asked him.

"Sorry to ruin your _moment," _Nico said, almost disgusted. "But the battle with Nyx and the Titans is coming. There's only one way to do it."

This perked up my attention. "I'm listening." A way to defeat Nyx, the Titans on her side, and save my friends? I was not going to pass this up.

"It's dangerous." He warned me.

"Danger is my middle name." I said, even though it is really Alexander.

"Liar." Nico said with a smile.

"Really? I thought it was." I said with sarcastic confusion.

"It involves bearing the curse of Achilles."

"The say what?" I asked. I never heard of it before.

"The curse of Achilles. It involves you bathing in the River Styx."

"I heard doing that will burn you to ashes."

"It may or may not. When we go down there, you need to focus on your mortal point. The part of your body that will remain vulnerable."

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"The gods forbid anyone to be completely invincible." Nico explained. "But, do be warned. Only three have survived this."

"Who were they?"

"Achilles, Luke Castellan, and..."

"Me." Percy said as he walked up to us, hand in hand with Annabeth.

"Does it hurt?" I asked. I've never been a real sucker for pain, but pain to achieve invulnerability? Seems kind of contradictory.

"It hurts a lot. But once it's done, it _is_ worth it." Percy squeezed Annabeth's hand as he said that._ Cute. _I thought. _They're lucky to have each other._

"I guess I can't pass it up." I said, a little depressed. "I got a world to save."

"You are not the only hero of the prophecy, remember?" Annabeth stated. "There is also a hero that is only named as 'light' in the prophecy."

"True. But I am the only one who has been confirmed." I said, maybe a little arrogantly.

"That is true." Nico said. "We should get going, though."

"Where do we start?" I asked, a little disappointed I didn't ask before.

"We need your mother's blessing," Nico replied as we began to walk. I stopped dead in my tracks. "What's wrong?"

"I can't. My mother hates me."

"I'll go with you two. Maybe a little extra leverage would help," Hades said as he walked up to us.

"Thanks dad." Both Nico and I said at once.

"Let us go. We waste time." Hades said, and when I thought about it, he was telling the truth.

_Here we go again, _I thought.


	26. Blessings, Or So I Thought

**Chapter 26: Blessings , Or So I Thought**

Hades transported me, Nico, and himself back to my front lawn. Instead of knocking like before, I just went straight on in. My mom never locked the door. I wanted to get that done, and get out of the house as quickly as possible. I walked into the kitchen, and found Robert, my mother and my little sister Ashley sitting around the dinner table, eating a plate of goat meat, and _Kvas, _or Russian rye bread drink.

"Jason?" Robert asked me when he saw me.

"Robert," I said, and nodded. "Can I talk to my mother for a minute?"

"You're not my son anymore," my mother said under her breath.

"Sure," Robert replied. "C'mon Ash."

Both Robert and Ashley stood up and left. I smiled at Ashley and she gave me a happy wave as she passed me. "Hi Jason!" She said with as much enthusiasm as Mr. Poplar.

"What do you want?" My mother asked, to no one in particular. "Hades, Jason, other..." She stated, gesturing to Nico.

"_Other _has a name. It's Nico." I said, a little irritated. "Nico Di Angelo."

"You didn't answer my question."

"We need your blessing. So he can, fight." Nico said, struggling for a better word than _fight. _

"I give you my blessing." My mother replied without second thought. "It is not my business what you do anymore."

"That was all we needed Barbara," my father stated, almost sadly.

"Be gone." She said, and turned to us, but I noticed something different. She had grey eyes. My mother didn't have grey eyes.

I ran over to her, and stared her in the face. She looked scared, broken. "No," I said, realizing what was wrong. "Athena!" I yelled.

"Clever child." She said. I was expecting her to revert back to her regular form, but she didn't.

"Revert!" I yelled. I was mad at Athena for this. I could feel Pyrinas stir inside of me, fuelled by my anger.

"She can't child." Hades said, with a mixture of anger and remorse. "Leave her body, Athena!"

"As you wish, Lord Hades." She replied, and she began to glow. I turned away, and felt the flash of light against my skin. It burned, but it only lasted a few seconds.

There was my mother, lying on the table, bleeding from the nose. I focussed on her, but I couldn't feel anything. You see, when you are a son of Hades, you can sense a person's life-force. It is like a sort of glow about them when you focus. Also, when someone around you dies, you feel a low frequency noise in your ears. I felt the noise and when I focussed, I couldn't sense her life force. Athena killed my mother.

**READ ON! This is sad, I know. But still. It gets better! R&R plz..**


	27. Thanatos, God of Death

**Chapter 27: Thanatos, God of Death**

We gave her the proper funeral procession in our backyard, and burned her body, while it was hidden under a shroud. It had a Greek helmet above a crossed hammer and sickle on a piece of black linen. It symbolized her being Russian and Greek.

Then, there was a man who shadow travelled into the back yard. He wore a large black hooded cloak and carried an even larger scythe. At first I thought it was Kronos, until my father said, "Thanatos."

"My liege." Thanatos replied as he lifted his hood. He looked like a young man, no older than 20 or 21. He had pure black eyes, pale skin, and shaggy black hair. The only thing that set him apart was that he was deathly thin. I could see his cheek bones protruding from the skin on his face, and when you looked at him in a different light, he was just a skeleton. Exactly how you would picture Death himself.

Thanatos reached into the burned wood and pulled out a wispy form of my mother. She was light blue, and looked like the breeze alone would carry her away any second.

Her last words to me were, "Jason, I give you my blessing." And Thanatos took her away.

"Do not worry son, she will achieve Elysium." Hades said to me as he gripped my shoulder.

"Thank you. But we should move." I replied, changing the subject. I did not wish to dwell on that any longer.

"As you wish." He gripped mine and Nico's shoulders and teleported us.

I would not recommend godly teleportation if you are afraid of periods of extreme darkness/light, or going so fast you feel the skin on your face is ripping off.

In other words, to me, it was freaking AWESOME! We were in a place I only realized from pictures. Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the United States.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"It's one of the two major entrances to the underworld," Nico replied. "Other than the entrance of Orpheus."

Hades snapped his fingers and we sank through the ground. All of a sudden, we were standing on the edge of the River Acheron, and Charon's ferry just pulled up to the shore as we arrived. Charon was definitely not a sight for sore eyes. He looked a lot like Thanatos, but when he lifted his head, he was molten rock. His skin was black with red cracks in it, and his eyes were a molten red.

"My lord." Charon said with a bow. His voice was gravelly, like he'd lost his voice and never got it back.

"We need transport, Charon," my father stated.

"Of course. Hop on ."

We did as we were told and were transported across the River Acheron. It was a sad sight when I looked into the red water. There were old college diplomas, a golden pocket-watch, a couple pictures, and a beer bottle here and there.

"Lost memories. Abandoned hopes." Charon said to me, and I realized he was talking about the items in the water.

When we hit shore, just to be generous, I dug out three golden drachmas from my pocket and handed them to Charon. "Thank you, Charon," I said.

"Much obliged, my lord," he replied and set sail across the river once again. We began to walk across the shore of the River Acheron, until we finally found the cross of the Acheron to the Styx. I walked to the edge, and what I saw scared me. There was nothing inside the water like the Acheron, but it was an acidic green, threatening to burn you to dust if you enter.

"Focus on your mortal point son, otherwise..." Hades said, but didn't finish his sentence.

"I die. I get it," I replied. I focussed on my mortal point, and was ready to enter. It's just below where my collarbone and my shoulder meet. I planned to walk in heroically, but once I tried, my legs turned to mush, and I fell face first into the water.


	28. I Have An Acid Bath

**Chapter 28: I Have An Acid Bath**

Imagine jumping into a pit of acid. Then multiply that pain by the biggest number you know. That's how much it hurt. It felt like my skin was being burned off my bones. I thrashed in the water. I could see my mother, saying _I give you my blessing. _Next I saw Percy and Annabeth. Then my baby sister, Ashley, but they quickly faded away. Then I saw Thalia. It seemed so... _real. _She said _Remember your mortal point, corpse boy. _Then she faded. I focussed on my mortal point and it felt like a bungee cord attached to my collarbone. I burst out of the water and landed on my face. I felt like I was on fire, and rolled around on the shore.

The pain subsided, but my skin was still as red as a tomato. I stood and my father just looked at me, astonished. "What?" I asked.

"Look at yourself." Hades said. I did, and my skin was still red, but something was different. On my shoulder, there was a black tattoo, in the shape of an Ω, and I was even buffer. I could feel the power surge through me. I also had a black and red glow about me.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The blessing of... of... Thanatos." Hades replied, obviously stupefied. "I've never seen it before."

The thing was, I believed it. I could feel the powers of death course through me, at an even higher magnitude than before. Then, without even drifting into a half sleep, I had a vision I was at camp. The campers were holding off Nyx's forces as best they could, but they were losing. Badly. The Apollo cabin was scrounging for more arrows, most of the Huntresses were dead, the Hephaestus cabin was out of Greek Fire, the Hermes cabin was scrambling, and in other words, it was total chaos.

I came out of the vision and was angry. At Nyx, at everyone. I shadow travelled to camp, and what I saw before me was even worse than my vision. I drew my sword, but as I began to charge, I tripped over a dead body. I looked behind me, and what I saw made me sad. I tripped over the lifeless body of Jake Mason, a camper from the Hephaestus cabin. I got up, and looked around. Every time a demigod killed a demon, more took its place. I was trembling with pure fury now. Without letting him take control, I tapped into the raw power of the Dark Core, and I began to glow with dark power. I stepped to the front lines of the demigods, and yelled, "FALL BACK!"

The campers were stunned at my sudden appearance, but they fell back. I turned towards the enemy, held out my hands in front of me and yelled with all my strength, "ENOUGH!" A wall of pure death emanated from me. Monsters vaporized, Hyperborean Giants shattered, and demigods fell. The monsters that were left fell back yelling curses, but they knew that they didn't have the power to hold their lines anymore.

After all the monsters fell back, Percy walked up to me. "Hey man," Percy said. His clothes were ripped, and he had scorch marks on him, but he looked otherwise okay. "Curse of Achilles comes in handy once in a while, eh?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "How are you feeling bro?" I was genuinely concerned. So many had died. Castor from the Dionysus cabin, Lee Fletcher and a girl named Jesse Kraken from the Apollo cabin, Connor Stoll from Hermes, and too many others.

"Alright, I guess. I'm beat though. That fight took a lot out of me." Percy stated. "I'd better go see how the others are doing. See ya, dude."

"Peace."

"I wish..." Percy said as he left. I walked over to Travis Stoll, Connor's brother, who was holding his lifeless bloody head in his hands. He was sobbing.

"I'm so sorry Travis. He will achieve Elysium."

"Thanks Jason." He said, but he was still devastated. I decided to let him have his time with his brother. I walked around, giving consolations, saying the dead will achieve Elysium. I walked up to Thalia and she was in bad shape. She had a broken nose, a broken foot, a broken arm, and she had trouble breathing.

I kneeled down and ran my fingers through her hair. "Hey babe," I said to her, trying to lift her spirits.

"Hey." She said with a smile, her teeth were bloody and her voice was raspy, like sandpaper.

"You'll make it through, I know it." I said encouragingly. "You're tougher than even the great Hercules."

She smiled and just looked up at me. "It takes more than a stupid Laistrygonian Giant to take..." She began to cough and Apollo walked up to her. He told me to give her some space so he can heal her. I stepped away to go find Chiron. I needed to assess the situation with him.

But first, I ran into Nico and my father. Nico was pretty battered, but he was walking. His arms were cut, but he was otherwise fine. My father didn't fare as well. He had to be supported by Nico, since he had an arrow in his thigh. But he just nodded, and they walked off.

I found Chiron, sitting in a wheelchair, which surprised me, since he is a centaur. "You are probably wondering about my wheelchair," Chiron stated. I nodded. "When I am injured, or need to pass as human, I need to be in this form."

"I see. Chiron?"

"Yes my boy?"

"How did they breach the borders?"

"I do not know. I suspect we have a double agent who allowed them in."

"When I catch them..." I said angrily.

"We will deal with that later. You need rest. Go to your cabin and sleep, it has been a long day for you."

He was right. I was dead tired, no pun intended, since my father is god of the dead. I went to my cabin, and laid down. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.


	29. The Battle Plan

**Chapter 29: The Battle Plan**

This was the scariest dream I had yet, and yet maybe the most useful. I was in the exact same black obsidian corridor as I was previously with Nyx and Orpheus. There was Nyx and a tall man with white hair and golden irises. He was a buff man, and he gave off an aura of _don't mess with me and I won't incinerate you. _They seemed heavy in thought.

"When do you plan on launching the attack, Nyx?" The tall man asked, almost with a tinge of annoyance.

"Before All Hallows Eve," She said. That was my birthday. "It is when he will be strongest and we cannot let that happen."

"But that is also when you will be strongest, Nyx. That's when the doors of the demon realm open completely."

"It won't matter if he is full power," Nyx said. "He'll incinerate us. Like our strike force."

I smiled at that. I made fast work of those... things. "As you wish Nyx. It is your decision."

"Of course it is, Kronos!" Nyx yelled at him. "You fumbling dolt."

Once Nyx said that, Kronos winced. Not because of fear. But because of anger. He wasn't powerful enough to do anything yet, and he knew it. "Yes, milady." He bowed, and left the room. Once the door slammed shut behind Kronos, the dream shorted out, and I woke up. I just noticed I was sweating, and I jumped out of bed and ran for the Big House with the Speed of Atalanta fully opened up. I was running so fast, my feet smoked. I bashed on the door, and eventually Mr. D opened up. "What is it Jayce Dayjay?" He said, half asleep.

"I'm so not in the mood, Dionysus." I pushed past him and ran to Chiron's room. I bashed on the door, again, and finally Chiron answered.

"What is it?" Chiron asked, still groggy and bedraggled. I told him about my dream, and he grew even more wide eyed as I told the story. "We must call a counsel of the gods, Mr. D, would you do the honours?"

I spun around to realize Mr. D standing right behind me. "I guess..." He closed his eyes, and snapped both of his fingers. "They'll be here in a few minutes." Mr. D shot me one last death glare, and he trotted off.

I walked outside with Chiron, and there was all the gods. Even Helios and Selene decided to join. There was murmuring among the gods, a lot of "What are we doing here?" or, "What's going on?"

I stood on the front porch of the Big House, and Chiron did his loudest whistle that he could manage, which was actually fairly loud.

"Everyone, listen to Jason and what he has to say!" Chiron yelled. I explained the situation, and my dream. There were faces of shock, disbelief, and general fright.

"Why should we believe you?" Aphrodite asked.

"Because it's true!" I said angrily. "We must prepare for a war!"

"We are in no shape for a war, child." Selene stated.

"That's wrong! We have more campers than ever now. And since we have you and your brother on our side, Selene, that gives the gods an advantage."

"Jason is right," Hades said. "We must prepare for an attack. Nyx will not wait for us."

"Why should we trust this boy?" Aphrodite yelled. "Him and his little girl toy assaulted me."

"Watch what you say, Aphrodite. She's still my daughter, even though I could live without certain... _upstart _demigods." Zeus said as he glared at me.

"And I only defended myself, Lady Aphrodite." Thalia said as she walked up to us. "That was your fault."

Aphrodite had to really struggle to hold herself back, but she stayed silent. There was mumbling and commotion among the gods, but none objected.

Then, Apollo walked up to me, along with Helios, Selene, Poseidon, Hades, and even Zeus. "You have all of our support, Jason." Poseidon said to me. I nodded.

"Anyone else?" I asked the crowd. The rest of the gods shuffled, but did not step up. I was a little disappointed, but not entirely surprised. But I knew, Nyx would not wait for us. In fact, I also knew that she would attack when we were weakest. Then I heard a blood-curdling scream. My eyes immediately went to Half-Blood Hill. There she was. Scared, pale as a ghost, and running from a gigantic falcon. There was my little sister, Ashley.


	30. I Fight an Overstuffed Bird

**Chapter 30: I Fight an Overstuffed Bird**

There Ashley was, running for dear life. The falcon was gaining on her, and I knew I had to do something. I did one of the stupidest things I have ever done. And that is saying a lot. I charged the falcon. I used the Speed of Atalanta to close the distance and I stood in front of the falcon just before it dove.

The bird's beak slammed right into my chest, and I would've been bird chow if it wasn't for the curse of Achilles. I held on to the feathers of the bird as it thrashed violently, trying to shake me off. I managed to climb on to the back of the bird's neck and held on for dear life. We were probably about fifty feet in the air, and I was doing my best to giant bird-wrestle. Everyone was looking in awe, and Apollo had an arrow notched in his bow. I heard him yell, "I can't get a clear shot off!"

Then, I drew my sword. I unsheathed it from its handle and drove the blade into the bird's head, right to the hilt. The bird began to disintegrate into golden dust, most of it hitting me in the face. The bird did a nosedive, as it was disintegrating, at a forty-five degree angle straight towards the center of the arena. It hit the ground with a giant _thud! _and I was thrown from the flying death machine. I skipped off the ground like a rock across water and crashed right into a wall. I fell, and was sore from head to toe. I looked towards the wall where I hit, and there was a giant crater. I stood, still sore and walked over to where my sword was buried in the ground. It was covered in dust, but otherwise unscathed. I pulled it out of the ground, re-sheathed it and put it into my gauntlet.

I limped over to where everyone was gathered and said, "Believe me now?"

All the gods nodded so much I was afraid their heads would lop off. Unfortunately, Ares' and Aphrodite's didn't. I didn't hold any grudges against Athena. My mother was already unstable, so she probably just couldn't handle the possession of a goddess.

The son of Kronos walked up to us, who I learned was a fourteen year old boy named Christopher, or Chris for short. He looked like he just got out of bed, which was highly likely since it was 8:30 in the morning. I didn't resent him because of his parenthood. It wasn't his fault he was the son of the Titan Lord. And, after I got to know him a little bit better, he was actually a really nice guy. His only downfall was that he had a crooked sense of humour, one that even rivalled a son of Hermes. His practical jokes were funny, when they didn't happen to you. He was also pretty mean with a switchblade. One time, he disembowelled a practice dummy with his switchblade in under 25 seconds. Impressive, eh? The time would've been shorter with a sword, but none were balanced just right for him. Unfortunately, he was also a little shy.

You see, Chris liked a daughter of Hebe named Atlanta. She waved at him a couple of times, but he always shied away. I kept on trying to get him to talk to her, but he always shut me down with answers like, "What if she doesn't like me?"- or just simply -"No."

One time, I was training with him, and he asked me a question that surprised me. "How did you get Thalia to like you?"

I was stunned, and I lowered my guard. He disarmed me easily, and held his sword to my throat. "Yield," I said. "And, I don't know. I just was myself, and it just spiralled from there."

Just then, Atlanta walked by the arena. "Thanks Jason." He said, and ran off towards Atlanta. I smiled, thinking _Good luck, Chris._

They seemed to be having fun as they walked off, smiling as they talked. I walked into the main pavilion, not looking for anyone in particular. As I walked by the Hermes cabin, I ran into Luke, quite literally. He just left his cabin for a jog, and ran straight into me. We both got knocked over, and Luke smiled. When he smiled, it caused the scar on his face to turn into sort of a crescent moon shape.

"Sorry," Luke said, still smiling and lying flat on his butt. He got up and offered me his hand. I took it, and his strength amazed me. He pulled with all his might and lifted me about a foot off the ground.

"You wanna see strength?" I asked Luke, and he had a puzzled look on his face. I grabbed him by the belt and tossed him into Long Island Sound. The thing was, the shore must've been at least one hundred and fifty yards away.

"AAAH!" Luke screamed as he flew, flailing helplessly. He landed in Long Island Sound with a large _sploosh! _probably about fifty yards into the water.

Luke swam to the shore, completely drenched. "How..?" Luke stammered.

"He was blessed with the strength of Heracles at birth." A growling female voice said behind me. I turned and almost jumped out of my skin at what I saw. What stood behind me was a wolf. Not like a regular wolf, like the ones you would see in a regular forest in a place like Oregon. This wolf was at least seven feet tall, with silver irises that matched her metallic fur, and sharp fangs that could skewer a pig with no effort.

"You... You _talked?" _I asked the she-wolf.

"Indeed, child." She growled.

"Jason Nightengale, meet Lupa. Former leader of Camp Jupiter, before it joined with Camp Half-Blood." Luke introduced.

"I know that name," I said. "You're Lupa, the mother wolf. The one who raised Romulus and Remus?"

"Indeed, child of Pluto." She replied.

"Pluto?" I asked.

"She is Roman, therefore, she knows the gods by their Roman aspects." Luke explained.

"I see." I replied, but I still felt uneasy around the talking canine. Lupa cantered off, but I still didn't let up until she was out of sight.

"You'll get used to her eventually, I'm sure." Luke said.

"Here. Let me warm you up." I said, since Luke was shivering and still drenched. We walked over to the bronze fireplace inside the pavilion, and I snapped my fingers, causing the fireplace to sport a bonfire of Hell Fire. Luke warmed up quickly, since Hell Fire is hotter than any other kind of fire. The way the light casted over Luke's face, it almost make him look like a different person. Older, stronger, but more filled with pain and hatred.

"Thanks for this, Jason." Luke said.

"Anytime," I replied.

"You're thinking of Nyx aren't you?" Luke asked me, his voice full of concern.

I realized I was, we weren't powerful enough to defeat her at the point in time. We couldn't even stop fighting each other at this point. "Yeah, I guess I was. We're screwed. We can't even stop fighting each other!" I looked down at my feet, ashamed. I wasn't sure what I was ashamed of, though.

"Get to class," someone said from behind me. I turned to find Dionysus himself, the pudgy old fart. I got up and left. "See ya Luke!" I yelled to the campfire, where he was still sitting. He waved and I went to sword fighting class.

Then, from the shadows, materialized my father, Hades. "I will not hinder you long, son." Hades stated. "But I have a gift for you, if you'll accept it. Draw your sword, boy."

I did as I was told, with the silver blade and the golden hilt gleaming in the moonlight. Hades touched the center of the blade, the inside, but not the edge, turned a nightmarish black.

"Stygian Iron," Hades stated. "The most powerful metal known to anyone. It can only be wielded by kin of me. It can harm mortals and immortals. It can only be mined in the Underworld, and it is cooled in the Styx, making it indestructible."

"Thanks..." I said. Truth be told, it was the nicest gift anyone ever gave me.

"You should go." Hades told me. I nodded and ran towards the arena. I didn't use the Speed of Atalanta, I don't know why.

I showed up at the arena, and found that Luke and Percy were duelling. How Luke got there so fast, I don't know. Luke was using a double edged sword, one side a gold-ish colour, the other a silver. Tempered steel, it looked like, and Celestial Bronze. Percy was fighting with his Celestial Bronze sword, Riptide, or _Anaklusmos _in Greek.

They were both extremely skilled, but I could tell Percy was getting tired. His moves were getting sluggish, and more frantic. Luke, however, was still going strong. His parries, blocks and strikes were perfectly timed. His stance was more defensive than offensive, but could still make a strike. Luke eventually got tired of the pointless fight, and quickly disarmed Percy and held his sword to his throat. "Yield," Percy said as I walked into the arena.

"Sorry I'm late, Percy." I apologized.

"No worries. Your turn." Percy said, heaving for air, and he jabbed his thumb at Luke.

I drew my sword. Luke readied himself for the coming duel. His stance was mainly defensive. You know the saying 'Don't fight fire with fire'? In sword-fighting, that isn't necessarily true. When someone goes defense, you can go the safe approach and go defense too. Or, you can go offense and do the thing that your opponent expects you to do.

I copied Luke's stance, and held my sword ready. Luke looked at me like, _This is interesting, _and he struck. He was good, but he relied too much on force, not on agility. I parried his strike and did a thrust to his midsection. Another thing you can do when your opponent is fighting defensively is do many feints. Feints are a tactic used in battle to distract or mislead your opponent to focus more manpower on a given area, when you strike in an undefended part of their body, and I did just that. I feinted and disarmed Luke. After that, I held my sword to his throat.

"Yield." He said, obviously surprised.

I lowered my sword, and Luke rubbed his throat. I didn't poke him very hard, but I think it was mainly surprise that I beat him so early and easily.

"Amazing..." Percy said, now breathing normally, and not looking tired at all. _Weird, _I thought.

All of a sudden, Tyler came bursting through the arena. He was going absolutely full-tilt, and he looked scared. When Tyler was about halfway across the arena, Phoebe, the lead Hunter of Artemis, came sprinting after him shooting flaming arrows at Tyler's butt. His pants were already scorched, and he had a black eye.

For a split second, Tyler turned towards me, and winked with his undamaged eye. I had to smile, he always had something up his sleeve. He turned around and snapped his fingers and there appeared a bright gold Maserati Spyder, right in front of Phoebe. She ran straight into the car and vaulted over it quite painfully, since she landed right on her face.

After that little incident, I was surprised how quickly Phoebe got up. Obviously, so was Tyler. When Phoebe got up, battered and bruised from the car-vault, Tyler went wide eyed and sprinted out of the arena, with Phoebe right behind him.

"Class dismissed." Percy said, holding back a smile at what just happened. We all left the arena besides Percy, who had more classes to teach.

The day toiled on, class after class. I did okay on Ancient Greek, with Annabeth and Chiron. Archery? Definitely not. I almost skewered Will Solace with a Celestial Bronze arrow. Pegasus riding with Butch? Well, I did okay, but Porkpie didn't like the smell of "dead people" apparently. Strength training with Argus? Let's just say Camp Half-Blood has one less dryad.

After all of my classes, I ran into, literally, a tall man with olive skin and black hair like me. It was Lord Hades himself. "You will become closer to your blade if you name it." He said to me.

"No, 'Hi Jason, how was your day?' Or, maybe even a nice 'Hello'?"

"Sorry, but time is of the essence." Hades replied, obviously sensing my negative emotion.

"Name a sword? Seriously?" I replied incredulously.

"Yes."

"Um," I replied, deep in thought. "What about _fovos?" (Fovos _is Greek for fear)

"Good, now I must go. You will meet someone who will change you for good very soon." Before I could ask him to elaborate, he teleported away. It was getting late now, and I headed back to my cabin.

Little did I know, I would meet that person that my father spoke of faster than I thought.


	31. Jesse Dread: Son of Hades

**Chapter 31: Jesse Dread: Son of Hades**

As I entered my cabin, I noticed something different. The empty bunk was filled with things. There was a Stygian Iron sword laid across it that looked a lot like Nico's, there were pictures scrawled across it of a girl from the Athena cabin I recognized as a girl named Riley. There was a pitch black backpack leaning against the bunk, and, quite frankly, I did not want to figure out what was inside.

All of a sudden, I heard someone's voice from behind me. "Who the hell are you?" The 'Mystery-Voice' said. I turned to find a kid a couple of years younger than me standing in the doorway. He was wearing a tattered military fatigue jacket with a black shirt with a skull and crossbones logo on the chest. He wore ripped blue jeans and a black pair of Adidas shoes.

"Jason Nightengale, son of..."

"Hades?" The boy said. "I sort of figured."

"Um, yeah." I replied. I didn't want to fight anyone, but he was getting on my nerves. "Who are you?"

"Jesse. Jesse Dread."

"Hi. Now, if you don't mind, I'll..."

"Go to sleep?" Jesse completed with a smirk. "Oh, come on. You have to face the initiation fight."

"Been there. Fought Nico."

"Bah. That doesn't count." He said and stuck out his hand. Out of nowhere, shadows swirled all around me and threw me out the door. Luckily, it was open. I crash landed hard onto the grass, and if it wasn't for the curse of Achilles, I probably would have broken something. I stood up just to be swarmed with more demons. I was mad now.

I snapped my fingers and felt a tug in my gut. All of a sudden, in a full circle, erupted a ring of hell fire. "We fight my way." I said. I pointed to the shadows and said, "Enough," and they dissipated.

Jesse crossed his arms and gave me a look like, _You're good, but not good enough._ He shot a wave of black fire and just in the nick of time, I activated my shield. Good and bad move. Good, because it took most of the impact. Bad because of the exact same reason. I went sailing out of my fire circle, plus an extra twenty feet. I stood up, groggy and tired, and stuck out my hand. I shot a pure black column of fire at Jesse, and he countered with a column of dark energy.

We were in a fire lockdown, the streams of blazing hell met each other in the middle, and it stayed that way, creating a black orb between the two.

What I noticed was that he was using two hands, whereas I was only using one. _If I could just deactivate my shield... _I thought. I bashed my gauntlet against my chin and hit the opposing button, deactivating my shield. I tucked and rolled out of the way of his blast of pure darkness, and certain death. I used the speed of Atalanta to guide me, and was at Jesse in a quarter second, I wound up and cleaned his clock. He went sailing into the woods, probably a good 200 yards away.

I walked into my cabin and saw Nico staring wide eyed at me. "What?" I asked him.

"You just kicked Jesse's ASS!"

"Yeah, what else is new?"

He snickered and gave me a look like _You are so dead._ and crawled into his bed and fell asleep.

I decided to follow his example. I stripped and took off my gauntlets, and set them on my bedside table. I fell asleep, and hoped I had a good sleep.

Maybe I had too high of hopes**.**

**DISCLAIMER! I do not own PJO, or Jesse Dread. Jesse belongs to ILoveLukeC. All credit for PJO goes to Rick Riordan. I know this is the first time I've done a disclaimer, so here it is! And ILoveLukeC, if you read this, here's Jesse, just as promised. (Sorry for the wait). Keep on R&R'ing! Argo out...**


	32. God of Fear

**Chapter 32: The God of Fear**

As soon as I fell asleep, I had my scariest dream yet.

Nothing popped out at me like in the horror films, but you'll understand why I was scared out of my pants.

You see, I was in a long throne-like room with black obsidian walls and red banners with various weapons decorating the walls. I was in Nyx's throne room in the Winter Palace.

Nyx was sitting on her black obsidian throne, brandishing a large bronze broadsword, with a ruby in the hand-guard along with another ruby embedded in the hilt. She looked at a ladies' Rolex she had on her wrist and sighed like: _where in Hades is he? _

Finally, a tall man wearing a long black trench coat with a black fedora and dark Ray Bans walked into the room. By no means was this man an intimidating figure, but he almost made me soil my pants right then and there. I wanted to scream, or turn and run, but my legs nor my voice worked in the dream.

When Nyx spotted the mysterious man, even she shifted in her seat and gripped the hilt of her sword a little tighter.

The mysterious man raised his head above the collar of his trench coat and smiled, and took off his hat. The thing was, his teeth were jagged points, like a shark's. He was a fairly handsome man, I guess. He had a stubbly face that looked like he hadn't shaved in at least two days. He had slicked back dark brown hair. He had a scar on his upper lip that looked a lot like Jason Grace's. Strangely, I felt that he looked like someone I knew, but I couldn't place my finger on it.

He bowed to Nyx and walked to the side of her throne. "Good evening, Lady Nyx." He said with a closed mouth smile, luckily.

Nyx nodded, 'and all she said was, "Phobos."

_Phobos? _I thought. Where did I know that name from? But I pushed that aside for now, and listened.

"It is about time you got here, Phobos. I was growing impatient." Nyx said.

"Pardon me, milady. I was... Preoccupied." Phobos replied. He said _Preoccupied _like there was no better word to describe his previous predicament.

"So be it." Nyx said. "But, we cannot afford any further delays."

Phobos nodded. "Yes, milady."

"I have a special assignment for you." Nyx said to him.

"And that would be?"

"Get rid of that blasted son of Hades. He cannot stop me!" Nyx yelled.

"You cannot prevent a prophecy, milady."

"No, but you can fight it. Let them wait another generation. Or one hundred generations for all I care."

Phobos nodded. "Is that all milady?" Phobos asked.

"Yes. Now go. Be done with it."

Phobos nodded again and left in a blinding flash, revealing his true form. If I was there, I would have been incinerated by just looking at him. Nyx put her chin on a closed fist and closed her eyes, obviously deep in thought.

All of a sudden her eyes shot open and she appeared as a blazing winged dragon-like thing, with flaming eyes and razor sharp incisors, and roared to the heavens.

I woke in a cold sweat. I got up extremely quickly and sprinted out the door. I needed to find Chiron.


End file.
